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al majdal
Issue No. 45 (Winter 2010)
quarterly magazine of
BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights
FORCED
SECONDARY
DISPLACEMENT
Palestinian Refugees in
The Gaza Strip, Iraq, Jordan, and Libya
BADIL takes a rights-based approach to the Palestinian
refugee issue through research, advocacy, and support
of community participation in the search for durable
solutions.
BADIL was established in 1998 to support the development
of a popular refugee lobby for Palestinian refugee and
internally displaced rights and is registered as a non-profit
organization with the Palestinian Authority.
Learn more at www.badil.org
al-Majdal is a quarterly magazine of
BADIL Resource Center that aims to raise
public awareness and support for a just solution
to Palestinian residency and refugee issues.
Electronic copies are available online at:
www.badil.org/al-majdal/
Annual Subscription: 25€ (4 issues)
Published by
BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian
Residency & Refugee Rights
PO Box 728, Bethlehem, Palestine
Tel/Fax: 972-2-274-7346
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.badil.org
ISSN 1726-7277
Editors
Akram Salhab & Hazem Jamjoum
Layout & Design
Abdelfattah Ladadweh, Al-Ayyam
Atallah Salem, BADIL
Acknowledgments
Badil thanks Dan Barron and Karen Mann for their help
with this issue of al-Majdal.
Front Cover: Palestinians displaced in the Gaza Strip,
10 March 2009 (©Ehab Lutayef)
Production and Printing: al-Ayyam
BADIL welcomes comments, criticism, and suggestions
for al-Majdal. Please send all correspondence to the
editor at [email protected]
The views expressed by independent writers in this
publication do not necessarily reflect the views of
BADIL Resource Center.
Advisory Board
Abdelfattah Abu Srour (Palestine)
Diana Buttu (Palestine)
Jalal Al Husseini (Switzerland)
Arjan El Fassed (Netherlands)
Randa Farah (Canada)
Usama Halabi (Palestine)
Jeff Handmaker (Netherlands)
Zaha Hassan (United States)
Salem Hawash (Palestine)
Isabelle Humphries (United Kingdom)
Scott Leckie (Australia)
Karine Mac Allister (Quebec)
Terry Rempel (Canada)
Shahira Samy (Egypt)
Joseph Schechla (Egypt)
Contents
Editorial
Palestinian Refugees: a surplus population . ............................................................................................ 2
Commentary
The Goldstone Report: Overview and Next Steps .................................................................................... 7
Special Poetry Feature
Canto Divino by Nathalie Handal ................................................................................................................... 12
Yaffa by Remi Kanazi ...................................................................................................................................... 17
Ode to the Backpacker by Adam Hill . ............................................................................................................. 17
For Two Friends Murdered by Michael Burton ............................................................................................... 18
Wall by Dr. Max Lane ...................................................................................................................................... 18
Where the Mangolia Tree Blooms by Valerie Khayat ..................................................................................... 19
A Tamil Mother’s Laugh by Bhagavadas Sriskanthadas ................................................................................ 19
Untitled by The Narcissist . .............................................................................................................................. 20
Of Palestine (a Fragment) by Danny Gardener ............................................................................................... 20
Shalom Salaam by Ehab lotayef ...................................................................................................................... 21
New Years Leaving Egypt by Andy Young........................................................................................................ 22
Redone by Mohammed Mohsen ....................................................................................................................... 22
Feature: Secondary Displacement
Palestinian Refugees in Jordan and the Revocation of Citizenship
by Hazem Jamjoum ............................................................................................................................. 23
The Palestinians of Iraq: The Chile Experience
by Doug Smith .................................................................................................................................... 30
Secondary Forced Displacement in Gaza: A Photostory
by Anne Paq ....................................................................................................................................... 35
The Palestinian Crisis in Libya 1994-1996
Interview with Bassem Sirhan............................................................................................................... 44
Reviews
Book Review: Behind the Wall
by Rosemary Sayigh ............................................................................................................................ 50
The majority of Palestinian voices are still being ignored
by Rich Wiles........................................................................................................................................ 54
Documents
Final Statement: Global Palestine Right of Return Coalition-10th Annual MeetingBeirut 5-11 December 2010.................................................................................................................. 57
Joint Open letter: Re: EU-Israel Sub-Committee on Political Dialogue and Cooperation,
15 December 2010 ........................................................................................................................................ 60
BADIL report submitted for upcoming review of Israel's performance under the International Covenant
on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights .................................................................................................... 62
BDS Campaign Update
June-December 2010 ....................................................................................................................................... 63
Winter 2010
1
Editorial
Palestinian Refugees: a surplus population
Palestinians crossing the Allenby Bridge
during the 1967 War. Over 400,000
Palestinian were displaced in 1967, over half
of whom were refugees from 1948 displaced
for the second time (© UN Archives)
D
espite 20 years of peace diplomacy, the majority of the Palestinian people remain in forced exile,
mainly as refugees and/or stateless persons vulnerable to persecution and renewed displacement
in their host countries. The root causes of Palestinian displacement and dispossession remain
unaddressed and there is no respect of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people to self-determination,
national independence, sovereignty and return to the homes and properties from which they have been
forcibly displaced, despite the United Nations's assertion that “full respect and the realization of these
inalienable rights of the Palestinian people are indispensable for the solution of the question of Palestine"1.
Instead, 20 years of peace diplomacy have resulted in a truncated Palestinian people, more than half of
whom continue to be afforded the treatment of an “indistinct mass of refugees”2 or a “surplus population”
expected to find individual solutions and to disappear from the political agenda of the peace makers.3
2
al-Majdal (Issue No. 45)
Editorial
The peace process inaugurated in October 1991 in Madrid was intended to achieve a comprehensive peace
between Israel and the PLO and Arab states through the “Land for Peace” formula in which Israel was to make
room for a Palestinian state in the 1967 Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT) in exchange for recognition
and the normalization of relations. Whilst the Madrid Conference itself did not produce an agreement, it
effectively signaled the end of the first Palestinian intifada (uprising) and set the ball rolling for a process
which would subsequently lead to the signing of the Declaration of Principles between Israel and the PLO
in 1993, the establishment of the Palestinian Authority (PA) and inauguration of the U.S.-sponsored peace
negotiations as the primary vehicle by which Palestinian rights were to be realized.
Despite these negotiations and the positive dynamics they were said to initiate, for Palestinians, the process
has meant a growing encroachment of illegal colonial settlements and confiscation of their land, a marked
increase in the restrictions of freedom of movement, their confinement in fragmented, bantustan-like “Areas
A and B” comprising no more than 40% of the West Bank, the segregation of occupied East Jerusalem, the
blockade of the Gaza Strip and the entrenchment of the systematic racial discrimination to which Palestinians
are subject both in Israel and the OPT. Israel, on its part, has used the cover of negotiations to establish
substantial economic, military and diplomatic relations with numerous Arab states whilst pursuing, in blatant
violation of international law, its grand policy of population transfer against the Palestinian people with the
aim and effect of altering the demographic composition of the OPT, including occupied East Jerusalem, as
well as of areas located within its borders.
As a result, an estimated 129,000 Palestinians in the OPT have been forcibly displaced since 1967,4 with
over 80,000 displaced as a result of the 2008/09 Israeli attack on Gaza.5 Forcible displacement is ongoing
due to Israel's incessant demolition of Palestinian homes, military operations and other practices aimed
at dispossessing and displacing them. Those who have remained steadfast in their homes face a more
precarious situation than ever before with communities in the path of the Wall (498,000 in 92 communities),
Palestinian Bedouins, Palestinians residing in the Jordan Valley, Eastern Jerusalem, Hebron, Southern Gaza
Children in Gaza struggling for
an education in the aftermath
of Israel's 2008/2009 assault.
Israel has repeatedly targeted and
destroyed Palestinian educational
institutions.(© Jon Elmer)
Winter 2010
3
Editorial
and the Gaza Strip “buffer zone” all at imminent risk of displacement.6 Moreover, intentionally ambiguous
military orders have been issued in the OPT, the vagaries of which provide Israel with a 'legal' framework
to facilitate the wholesale expulsion of nearly all Palestinians residing in those areas.7
Palestinian citizens of Israel too are victims of systematic forced removal from their ancestral lands and
places of residence. As the world celebrated the holiday season, Israel spent Christmas time demolishing the
homes of Palestinian families in Lydd displacing 67 members of the same family, whilst in the Naqab, the
unrecognized Bedouin village of al Araqib, one of dozens of villages in the area slated for demolition, has
been destroyed for the 18th times. In addition, Palestinian citizens of Israel face a raft of new discriminatory
policies, currently at various stages of the legislative process, which supplement Israel's apartheid system
with features reminiscent of petty Apartheid in South Africa.8
For Palestinian refugees, the past 20 years have posed a constant threat to their rights by a diplomatic
community focused more on accommodating Israel's “need” to define itself as an ethnic Jewish state than on
the implementation of international law. The political institutions and procedures of the Palestinian Authority
(PA) have been developed in such a way that the majority of the Palestinian refugees, those living in exile
(as well as Palestinian citizens of Israel, including IDPs) have been left out of the PA's “development and
state-building” project in the OPT. Instead responsibility for assistance, protection and development of the
Palestinian refugees has been delegated to the de facto inactive PLO and the international community, i.e.,
mainly UNRWA, “until a just and agreed solution in accordance with UN resolutions, including UNGA
194 is found”,9 thereby leaving Palestinian refugees without substantial representation or voice.
The neglect of refugees has been most prominent in relation to refugee exclusion from the peace process, a
period during which refugee involvement in the decisions affecting their lives is indispensable. In contrast
to many other conflict situations where refugee participation was ensured at the early stages of peace
making, no mechanism has been established for the participation of the exiled Palestinians refugees in the
peace negotiations since 1991 or their active involvement in the Palestinian body politic since 1994. For
UN Resolution 194 guaranteeing
the right of return for Palestinian
refugees written on the wall in
Dheisha refugee camp, Bethlehem
2010 (© Joanna Brown)
4
Editorial
Palestinian refugees, therefore, the peace process has meant no more than the occasional statements of
Palestinian leaders which reaffirm the rights of the refugees, while no Palestinian strategy is in place for
putting these rights into practice, and no platform is available for effective debate about strategies required
for their realization.
For the estimated five million Palestinian refugees10 exiled to Arab states, the past 20 years have
been a continuation of a precarious and uncertain existence. Whilst the three major Arab host states,
alongside UNRWA, provide limited and varying access to public services to their Palestinian refugee
populations, they do not pursue an active development strategy for Palestinian refugees arguing that
this serves to prevent their permanent settlement. Whilst the ostensible purpose of this policy is to
“support the Palestinian right to return” by helping to maintain the refugee community as a collective
and “protect their national identity”, the consequences are that Palestinian refugee communities in
many Arab countries face, often severe, discrimination as host states ignore the provisions of the
Arab League's 1965 Protocol on the Treatment of Palestinians (Casablanca Protocol), violate their
obligations under customary international law and human rights treaties to which they are signatories,
and do not abide by the standards of the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, which
most Arab states have not endorsed.
As the previous and current issues of al-Majdal show, such contempt for refugee rights has often paved the
way for the forced expulsion of Palestinian refugees, and for their abuse by Arab governments as pawns in
the achievement of regional geopolitical interests. In this issue, we continue to look at incidents of forced
secondary displacement in/from Arab host states, including the plight of Palestinian refugees from Iraq
now living in Chile, an interview with Bassem Sirhan regarding the expulsion of Palestinians from Libya
in 1994-1995 and an interview with lawyer Anis Qassem regarding the complex legal status of Palestinian
refugees living in Jordan and policies that lead to their displacement. Included in this issue is also a
photostory from the occupied and blockaded Gaza Strip about the ongoing displacement of Palestinians
caused by Israel's 2008/09 military assault as well as a special poetry feature covering struggles against
forced displacement, colonialism and oppression.
The tragic incidents and stories of Palestinian refugees covered in these two issues of al-Majdal have
occurred mainly because the United Nations and its members have lacked the political will to challenge
Israel’s policy of forced population transfer and to protect Palestinian refugees as part of a people entitled
to self-determination and return. Irrespective of the fact, that the UN has long recognized these rights,
little has changed since May 1949, when the UN General Assembly, in response to U.S. pressure, resolved
that “Israel is a peace-loving State which accepts the obligations contained in the Charter and is able and
willing to carry out those obligations,” and welcomed Israel’s membership in the United Nations in a step
which undermined parallel UN-led efforts for refugee return and comprehensive peace between Israel and
Arab states.
The marginal importance placed by the international community on protecting the rights of Palestinian
refugees in the context of peace making is evident in the limited powers afforded to UN agencies mandated
to provide assistance and protection them. The UN Conciliation Commission for Palestine (UNCCP), the
agency established in 1948 to provide protection for Palestinian refugees and facilitate comprehensive
peace, has long been de-activated and de-funded; it merely publishes a one-page annual report stating that
“it has nothing new to report” and neither UNRWA nor UNHCR have been mandated to search for just and
durable solutions for all Palestinian refugees. In a situation where the UN Security Council and dominant
UN member states do not promote their rights to return and self-determination, this means that Palestinians
are without an effective agency to provide protection of these rights.
Winter 2010
5
Editorial
The staggering balance sheet of 20 years of failed peace making highlights the need for a new, rights-based
approach that puts protection of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, including its refugees, and
Israeli accountability, at center-stage. As under Apartheid South Africa, no progress can be achieved as long
as Israel's oppressive regime is permitted to prevail and the peace process will not succeed so long as the
focus is on which subset of rights Israel is willing to concede to Palestinians rather than how Palestinians'
inalienable rights are to be realized. The pieces included in the document section at the end of this issue
of al-Majdal, including an update on recent achievements of the Palestinian civil society-led Campaign
for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel until it abides by international law, illustrate
ongoing efforts in this regard.
Endnotes: See online version at: http://www.badil.org/al-majdal/
Murals on the wall depicting
the shrinking map of
Palestine due to Israel's
policy of forced population
transfer. The image on
the left is of an UNRWA
registration card with Arabic
writing asking how long
Palestinian displacement
will continue. Dheisha
refugee camp, Bethlehem
2010 (© Joanna Brown)
6
Commentary
The Goldstone Report:
Palestinian victims and human rights held hostage to politics
Gaza Strip, 2010
(© Anne Paq - Activestills.org)
I
mpunity continues to prevail in the Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), a state of affairs clearly
evident in the international response to Israel’s military offensive in the occupied Gaza Strip between 27
December 2008 – 18 January 2009 in which more than 1,400 Palestinians and 14 Israelis were killed.1
83% of the Palestinian victims were Geneva-Convention protected civilians, most of them Palestinian
refugees who had been forcibly displaced from their homes and properties to the Gaza Strip as a result of
Israel's ethnic cleansing operation (the Nakba) of 1948 .
Two years on from Israel's military assault on the occupied Gaza Strip, domestic investigations have failed
to meet international standards; those responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity have not
been prosecuted, and no reparations have been provided to the victims. This section will give an overview
of the Goldstone Report, explaining how it was initiated, the processes through which it has passed, and
how the findings of the report can be taken forward to ensure justice for the victims.
The Findings of the Goldstone Report
During the attack on Gaza, the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) passed resolution number A/HRC/S9/L.12 which condemned Israeli aggressions and called on the United Nations High Commissioner for
Human Rights to report on alleged war crimes which occurred during the Israeli attack. On 3 April 2009,
the HRC established an international independent Fact Finding Mission with the mandate “to investigate
all violations of international human rights law and international humanitarian law that might have been
Winter 2010
7
Commentary
committed at any time in the context of the military operations that were conducted in Gaza during the
period from 27 December 2008 and 18 January 2009, whether before, during or after.”3
On 29th September 2009, the UN Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict, composed of South African
Judge Richard Goldstone and his 3 person team, submitted its report to the Human Rights Council (12th
session). The “Goldstone Report” entitled Human Rights in Palestine and Other Occupied Arab Territories:
Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict 4 confirmed that both Israeli forces
and Palestinian armed groups had committed grave violations of international law, including war crimes
and possible crimes against humanity.
The Goldstone Report documented Israel's attacks on UN facilities, mosques and schools and the use of
Palestinians as human shields. It also gave details of particularly horrific incidents, such as one in the Zeitoun
district of Gaza in which Israeli soldiers gathered over a hundred members of the Samouni family into one
house before opening fire with rockets and artillery shells, killing 29 members of the family and injuring
dozens more. Alongside the documentation of killings, the report also verified reports of the wanton Israeli
destruction of civilian infrastructure and private property in Gaza including the razing of a chicken farm and
31,000 chickens and the destruction of one of the raw sewage lagoons of the Gaza Waste Water Treatment
plant, leading to the outflow of 200,000 cubic meters of raw sewage onto the neighboring farmland.
The Goldstone Report also found that, in the lead up to the Israeli military assault on Gaza, Israel imposed
a blockade amounting to collective punishment and carried out a systematic policy of progressive isolation
and deprivation of the Gaza Strip. During the military operation, houses, factories, wells, schools, hospitals,
police stations and other public buildings were destroyed, with families, including the elderly and children,
left living amid the rubble of their former dwellings long after the attacks ended, as no reconstruction has
been possible due to the continuing blockade. Significant trauma, both immediate and long-term, has been
suffered by the population of Gaza. The Gaza military operations were directed by Israel at the people
of Gaza as a whole, in furtherance of an overall policy aimed at punishing the Gaza population, and in a
deliberate policy of disproportionate force aimed at the civilian population.
Judge Goldstone during his
Mission's visit to Gaza
(© UN Archives)
8
Commentary
The “Roadmap to Accountability”
The significance of the Goldstone Report's findings is the unprecedented “Roadmap of Accountability”
which sets clear guidelines for achieving justice for war crimes victims. The Report noted with concern
that the repeated publication of human rights reports and the lack of subsequent follow-up had created a
situation which “emboldens Israel and her conviction of being untouchable” and had created a “justice
crisis” for Palestinians, and committed itself to providing a framework to ensure that its findings were
followed up on.
To do this, the Goldstone Report gave Israel and the Palestinian authorities six months to conduct domestic
investigations into war crimes and possible crimes against humanity committed during Israel's assault and
to prosecute those responsible. If after 6 months these domestic investigations did not meet the international
standards of independence and impartiality, then the Goldstone report recommends a number of alternative
avenues for ensuring accountability by calling on:
•
•
•
•
•
UNHRC and the UN Security Council to submit the report for investigation to the ICC
UN General Assembly to establish a reparation fund to provide compensation for Palestinians who
had suffered damage or loss as a result of the Israeli assault
UN General Assembly to ask the Government of Switzerland to convene a conference of the high
contracting parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention of 1949 on measures to enforce the Convention
in the Occupied Palestinian Territory
UN General Assembly to ask the UN Security Council to report on the measures taken to ensure
accountability for serious violations of international humanitarian law and human rights and to consider
what other action it might wish to take to ensure justice, such as that provided by UN Resolution 377,
Uniting for Peace.
State parties to the Geneva Conventions of 1949 to start criminal investigations in national courts,
using universal jurisdiction, and where warranted, to arrest and prosecute perpetrators, significantly
strengthening the legitimacy of lawsuits brought by Palestinian victims against Israeli suspects in
courts abroad.
In addition to activating mechanisms for international justice, the Mission also recommends a number of
other practical recommendations as a result of their findings including:
•
•
•
•
A recommendation that the UN General Assembly promote an urgent discussion on the future legality
of the use of certain munitions referred to in the report, in particular white phosphorous, flechettes and
heavy metal such as tungsten.
Calling on the Government of Israel to end the blockade on Gaza, to review its rules of engagement
to bring them in line with international law, release political prisoners and cease the restrictions on
Palestinian travel in the West Bank and between the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem and
the outside world.
Calling on all Palestinian parties to respect international law
Recommending that international law and human rights assume a central role in internationallysponsored peace initiatives.
What has happened to the Goldstone Report and what are the next steps?
After its release on 29th September 2009, a vote on the report's findings was due to come up for
discussion at the 12th session of the Human Rights Council on October 2nd 2009 but was deferred at
Winter 2010
9
Commentary
the request of the PLO/PA, under heavy international pressure. At the time BADIL and a number
of other human rights organizations issued a statement entitled: Justice delayed is Justice Denied 5
which condemned the decision of the Palestinian leadership to delay the vote and thereby put political
considerations before the pursuit of justice for the victims of Israeli crimes. This intervention was part
of a wider grassroots opposition to the PLO's decision which eventually lead to the PLO, on 11th of
October 2009, to ask for the Goldstone Report to be brought before a special session of the UNHRC.
At its 12th Special Session on October the 16th, the UNHRC resumed debate of the Report passing
Resolution A/HRC/S-12/16 which endorsed the report and condemned Israeli actions in the West Bank,
Gaza and East Jerusalem as well as criticizing Israel for failing to cooperate with the UN mission.
As a result, the Goldstone Report was then brought before the General Assembly which passed resolution
A/Res/64/107 endorsing the report of the UNHRC, requesting that the UN Secretary General transmit
the Goldstone Report to the Security Council, calling for independent inquiries by both Palestinians and
Israelis and asking that the UN Secretary General report back within 3 months on the progress of the
implementation of the resolution. The resolution also repeated the recommendation made in the Goldstone
Report, that the Government of Switzerland, as the depository of the Geneva Convention reconvene a
Conference of High Contracting Parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention to discuss measures to enforce the
Convention in the Occupied Palestinian Territory. Support for the Goldstone Report and its implementation
was again affirmed on 26th February 2010 by another UN General Assembly Resolution8 which reiterated
the demands of the previous resolution and asked the Secretary General to again report, within 5 months,
on the progress made towards the implementation of the resolution. The demand for accountability
was reaffirmed by another UNHRC resolution, Resolution 13/99, which called for the establishment of
an independent commission of human rights experts to review the progress made in implementing the
recommendations of the Goldstone Report.
At its Fifteenth Session, the UNHRC received the report by the independent committee of legal
experts10 which concluded that domestic investigations, on both sides, had failed to meet international
standards of impartiality and promptness. The committee also criticized Israel for its lack of cooperation
with the committee in its investigations, for ignoring the testimony of Palestinian witnesses and for
failing to conduct any serious investigation into the conduct of the war. BADIL, as part of its work
in the Human Rights Council of Palestine, insisted that international criminal justice be pursued11
and called on the UN Security Council to refer the situation to the ICC and reminded all states of
their obligation to investigate and prosecute those suspected of perpetrating grave breaches of the
Geneva Convention.
In response to the experts report, the Human Rights Council adopted a resolution, drafted by the
PA/PLO,12 which once more extended the mandate of the experts' committee to report about the
progress of the domestic investigation undertaken by Israel and the Palestinian authorities and
failed to call for the activation of the international accountability mechanisms as recommended
in the Goldstone Report. At this stage, the question of whether Israel's can be held accountable
for crimes committed against the occupied and blockaded Palestinian people of Gaza will be
answered in March 2011, when the Human Rights Council will decide in its seventeenth session
whether to request action by the UN General Assembly and/or the Security Council. Palestinian
and international human rights organizations, including BADIL, are calling for public pressure
on all states, as well as the PA/PLO, to support a Human Rights Council resolution which affirms
support for international accountability.
10
Commentary
Calls for Public Action
•
•
•
Raise public awareness about the lack of access to justice by the Palestinian people and the need to
hold Israel accountable to international law in domestic courts abroad, as well as in the United Nations
system.
Inform and lobby decision makers to support international accountability mechanisms, as well as the
rapid convening by the Government of Switzerland of a Conference of the High Contracting Parties to
the Fourth Geneva Convention, which will determine ways to enforce Israel's respect of the Convention
in the occupied West Bank, including Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.
Raise awareness and take action to end Israel's illegal blockade of the Gaza Strip.
For further links to BADIL statements and relevant UN documents please visit the BADIL website:
http://www.badil.org/topics/goldstone/goldstone_report.htm
Judge Goldstone addressing
the UN in Geneva, 2009
(© UN Archives)
Winter 2010
11
Poetry & Prose
T
he following are some of the pieces contributed by various poets and
writers from around the world related to the theme of the Palestinian
Nakba.
Canto Divino
by Nathalie Handal
à ma mère
che se ’l vero è vero1
-Dante, The Divine Comedy
Paradiso
Cantos
My uncle tells me he could hear
silence crossing itself in deep song
He says the tilting sky
is like crushed pearls in a farmer’s sack
…
That we can’t rush love in Jaffa,
Haifa, Nazareth or Bethlehem
we have to wait for heart-light
to take madness back to its genesis
…
(© Ismael Shammout)
Like we wait for
white rose & sunlight
sleep & lust
wait for the snow filled hills
to shine the longing hours
like a wife waiting to be touched hard
…
Nathalie Handal is an award-winning poet, playwright, and writer. Her work has appeared in numerous anthologies and magazines and has
been translated into more than fifteen languages. She has been featured on PBS The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer, NPR Radio as well as The
New York Times, The San Francisco Chronicle, Reuters, Mail & Guardian, The Jordan Times and Il Piccolo and was an Honored Finalist for
the 2009 Freedom Award. She has also been involved either as a writer, director or producer in over twenty theatrical and/or film productions
worldwide. Her website is www.nataliehandal.com.
12
My uncle tells me
we keep the darkest passages
of our poems in a room we make ours,
where a mysterious light
rests at the bottom of a curtain
like a canvas God delivers,
where lovers ask each other to kneel
to hide tobacco in someone else’s
pocket,
let the fire they built die out slowly
like the slow movement of spirit
announcing where it has come from
…
still holding on to the clusters of
wildflowers,
to the shadows that have abandoned
their tales,
the language of birds mocking him,
the dream-hymn, the breath meditating
on what exile might mean, the spiders
covering his back,
that’s how she finds him,
coming to her quietly
quietly leaving her quietly
as the first tank passes by
as if they were not there
It is the way glory moves here, he says
we don’t have to remember
what lies ahead, nor what we have to
cross,
all roads are ours
…
I wonder if my uncle is her lover
It is the kind of home
where you can hide behind the only
thing
you ever want to say
…
La gloria di colui che tutto move
/ è / l’amor che move il sole e l’altre stelle2
...
It is the place
that knows dream intimately
and when the vase falls & breaks,
we still walk away with flowers
…
Just imagine what we want to imagine,
just imagine berries against small stone
walls
just imagine which door will open
where, which lips
will kiss whom, which dress will be
worn by her,
just imagine the gazelles, the seahorses
waiting,
just imagine her freckled face against
her lover’s
…
And her lover is suddenly found dead
a cigarette still lit on his lips,
a dictionary of mishaps in his hands,
a basket of feathers,
he refuses to die on the unpaved road,
that’s how she finds him,
And I hear her scream:
La gloria di colui che tutto move
/ è / l’amor che move il sole e l’altre
stelle
But there is an apocalypse in our
garden,
paradise caught in a voice unknown
to us:
How shall we sing the Lord’s
Song in a strange land?3
Our keys, knobs, even our doors
are gone.
Song in a strange land?
Our villages have new names,
our owls sold.
Our sleep shorter, our gaze
in the attic.
Our night covered with fingerprints
and shadowboxes.
The slowness of our maidens, the song
and hard flesh against a rock of ice
gone.
The stale bread we never ate, the pond
we forgot to name elsewhere.
Where are we?
Inferno
The Circles of Hell
Circle I 1948
In the April of our burial, bleeding
what is left of our death, what is left
of us, like wet rags against earth
that beg song for mercy, beg heart
for beat, beg truth for rebirth,
then look right in the beast’s eyes
and scream his name
which is now ours as well,
demand to show us our face
which they hide in their hands,
demand to show us our soul
which is caught in their prophesy:
Per me si va nella città dolente
Per me si va nell’ etterno dolore,
per me si va tra la perduta gente4
Now we share a common grief.
By the fire-gate I see a poet,
ask, why do you sit drawing a
valley of butterflies,
where are your words?
In paradise.
And where are we now?
Hell is everywhere here here here...
And heaven?
It’s buried under.
Where are you going?
Winter 2010
13
Poetry & Prose
Leave me alone.
I can’t.
Jerusalem.
Can I come?
There is no deliverance
anywhere in the deepest pit of hell.
Will they take our soul?
Take the Diwan, and let’s follow
the horse.
Circle II 1967
Through the years,
I write my initials
to guide me back
but hell burns its entrances & exits
I hold on to my tinted photographs,
my fleur-de-lis,
negatives of shaved sheep
and one naked woman
with a captain’s hat
We take a beaten road,
see a crossed-eyed boy
a field of burnt hay
we meet high bidders and merchants,
their roots deep in prayer
like a thorn growing outside us.
Damn, what is this all about,
this land of scarecrows and webs
The poet tells me greet the old lady,
look deep into her eyes for the tulip.
The poet tells me greet the leopard,
who pulls out his tongue and licks my
cheek.
The poet tells me greet the lion,
who looks at me, sees a labyrinth with
black cats glaring
The poet tells me greet the wolf,
before I answer, the wolf has gone
with what little we have left.
I ask the poet if that’s what exile means?
Exile is turning off one light after another
after another after another after
another.
14
Circle III 1987
Another stone, like music like the
maiden
moving wildly in our dream-night
like freedom like poets hunting for
magic
like a hazy sky sewing eighty seven
colors
around God’s light like love that
imagines
what it looks like when its hoping like I
imagine you stripping or is it you who
imagines me,
like the thick paint on my shirt, like
the archers
with rip fruit in their mouths, their
patriotic
songs torn & stepped on, like the pulse
of a runner
approaching the finishing line, and the
rainbow
losing itself on the water, this is what
we feel,
and before we can find the way to one
another’s lips,
our open umbrellas are taken away,
and love
imagines what it looks like when its
aching,
when its filled with brooms not birds,
when is yearns, when its porcelain
angels are shattered
into a thousand pieces, when at the end
of freedom, all love finds
is more circles, and a row of empty sits.
Circle IV 2000
the blessing we didn’t wait for,
means nothing to us.
In this new century
we count wings caught in hearts
and wonder what we will
find at the foot of the hill?
Circle V 2007
That I am not frightened even if
I’ve seen in their eyes
men who sink themselves,
even if when I place my hand
on the stone floor
hear footsteps falling from chests
hear notes trying to come out
of tangled strings,
a 5 a.m. cry
like the beating of pain with a stick.
Where are we?
What falls on either side
of our mouth: the lie half-broken, or
wrestling phantoms,
a way to praise the dark
and repent sin after sin after sin
after sin after sin after sin.
Where are we?
I hear:
We have left our shadows on grass.
I hear:
The Guardian of Butterflies
The mold on our body means nothing
to us.
We are closed to God.
I say to you, come closer
Say to the ocean, go farther
Say to you, go far
But no one’s paying attention
This time our stones have lost their
omen.
This time the stain of our lovemaking
on the Prussian blue pillows, the
shadow dimming in a ode to departure,
Under the snow
the quiet chaos of shaken waters
the old keys of Jerusalem
never rusting,
the voice hurrying to find
if God holds doubt,
understands the
unspoken earth, the hums
of small echoes.
It is red hour
we listen to preludes,
bathe, wipe ourselves
with the same towel, my hair
too long for them to reach,
my dreams lingering between burials
somewhere guts hang
while the enemy plays drums
and I pretend to guard
butterflies.
The Opera Singer
It is canto divino. A paradise that holds
legend on its breath.
That keeps the wheat fields yellow. The
olive farms growing.
But I can’t seem to find sunlight
anymore. Peace has no hands nor feet.
I sing freedom. Lose sight of the
meteor. The smell of coffee.
I walk through the fence.
The Priest
I am not a stranger
pretending to be stranger.
I enter the gospels and the verses of
the Koran.
I enter longing and find promise, enter
promise and find despair enter
despair and find exile enter
exile and realize I left my stare
in the last drop of water.
The Lantern Keeper
Where are the lanterns? The family
albums. The windows. The addresses.
We write once. We sleep in the half
hour. We find time to wander. We
exhaust love affairs in hotel rooms.
We exhaust slogans. The dew breaker
has gone. The coffin maker has gone.
The bodies are nameless. The bones
weeping. I am no longer a lantern
keeper. Instead I recite telegrams I
memorized when there was still light,
and I knew where I was:
From Sumaiya to Ghassan:
Tell him I understand
He had to fight a war.
It was urgent
Tell him
I still have his photo
Drinking coffee with Mahmoud
Playing Beethoven
Thinking of Rachel
Tell him
I have his quilt
One thousand and ten threads
Just say that I don’t
Know how to weave
Tell him
I opened the window yesterday
Saw the a woman selling
Cherries and apricots
His favorite
Her feet swollen
Tell him
I found the verse
He has been looking for
Its starts with Salaam
Ends with Salaam
Just one word
your favorite poem of Eluard
and count the acres
that has always
been yours,
coming to a village
where every
candle stands
for a hero
you name silently.
I knew you would come one day
to sing deep song,
be close to the sun
and the winter and the rooftops
and the gardens and the groves and
the trees.
Tell him
I forgive him
For forgetting
Who I am
We prepared a long table for you
but they divided the table
divided the table cloth
divided our apricot jam
our flowers
our beds
our neighbors
they divided our house
and even our cemeteries.
I saw you yesterday.
Saw you coming
but that was before
I saw the wall.
From Ahmad to Moureed:
Circle VI Beyond
I saw you yesterday.
Saw you coming
With a red hat
and something in your hands.
It was you.
I am certain.
Who else would bow
to the wind,
wave to an old locksmith.
It was you coming
to announce something,
deliver something.
You looked different
no longer like grandfather,
or Ahmad
no longer like Abu Waleed
or like Ummi.
You looked unafraid
knew you were coming
to say victory
coming to recite
Shame5
I won’t be here
Shame
Since the white pigeons
will be arriving and
the minaret will be glowing,
since the sky will be but stars
houses will have doorbells
and the windows will be
covered with dream-mists.
Shame
I won’t be here
Shame
Since the man who told me about his
hallucinations will come to the teahouse
to bring me his tarboush,
the graying photo of his mother.
Shame
I won’t be here
Winter 2010
15
Poetry & Prose
Shame
Since kites will be flying everywhere
on the Strip, yesterday in darkness,
since the seaport will be open,
the waters clear, and the shadows of
men in trenches,
of children with candles in blackouts
will be over.
Shame
I won’t be here
Shame
When finally this will no longer be
truth:
peacocks turning wild in a man’s
despair’s,
a woman sleepwalking into her life,
agony filling hands with lines & loss,
fields closing onto themselves
like dying wings,
a lover seeing another lover
disappearing into someone else,
the long passages of books
keeping men living in their death.
Shame I won’t be here,
an indigo painting will be hung
the coffee shop will be empty
the beekeeper will bring
forty-eight grams of honey-powder,
the roads will lead to everywhere
but no one will remember how to drive.
Shame
I won’t be here
When you come to bring me roses
and it’s not me you find,
when in one hour one afternoon
Mahmoud will hand me one coin
tell me one last time the tale
of one winter he climbed
sixty flights of stairs to have
one glance of his home and
of the child in him staring at him.
Shame you won’t find me.
You will ask, have you seen her?
You will stop to see if
I am catching sins between roof
antennas,
16
crossing alleys of urine,
hiding from pollen behind chapel doors.
You will search through the valleys of
black maps
under the horse’s breath
under the jasmine trees
under the claws of wolves
in the refugees tombs
in the hay stacks that didn’t burn
in the hush of a dove
by the stream far from the cypress
groves
in the swan’s reverie and under the
joker’s hat.
You will even meet Timaeus who will
tell you
“the soul returns to its own star,
from which he believes it to have been
separated
when nature gave it for a form.”6
Hopeful, you will think, but shame no
will listen
for everyone here dies waiting.
Shame you will not find me.
You will look one last time through the
desert’s grief,
in your mother’s house, under her
mattress
and the embroideries she refused
finished,
in the heart of the rival and under the
sleeves of
Mary, Moses, Samuel, Luke, and John.
You will even go to death but death
will not wait, shame.
Shame
I won’t be here when you find me.
And you poet, will you be here?
I won’t,
but they won’t either.
What will be left—
A lonely prayer
An abyss
A land of broken glass
A closet of bells
Bones between the cracks of wood
like an overture trying to play
cucurrucucu pa lo ma... 7
Purgatorio
Canto
An undisturbed hush between us,
Eternity is close.
Sì mi ricorda /
ch’ io vidi le due luci benedette, /
pur come batter d’occhi si concorda,
con le parole mover le fiammette.
“I remember to have seen the two
blessed lights,
just as winking eyes keep time together,
move with the words their little
flames.”8
Move with their silence a canto divino:
there will be there will be
sawfa ya koun sawfa ya koun.
Endnotes: See online version at:
http://www.badil.org/al-majdal/
Yaffa
‘Ode to the Backpacker’
For my Teta
by Remi Kanazi
by Adam Hill
Whence you arrived upon these Commonwealth shores
Had you become versed
In the scores upon scores
Of injustices committed through introduced laws
Picture of the clock
tower in Jaffa prior to
the 1948 Nakba (source:
palestineremembered.com)
she no longer recognizes my face
never will again
but can still smell her oranges
feels the sun kiss her face
as if on her balcony in Yaffa
61 years later
described like the most magnificent villa
must have been seven stories tall
spanned half the neighborhood
tree branches opened like arms
so trunks could witness its beauty
I visited the house with my brother
Israeli cab driver said he’d never heard of the street
Palestinian presence must have made his memory fail
No doubt you’ve read what the Lonely Planet said
That should you venture through Redfern you’re better off dead
But where are the Kangaroos, the Aborigines and Koalas?
And it’s ‘Murri’ country (not Queensland) from where come
our Bananas
Bondi... is NOT the only tourist hotspot
For we’ve got the most beaches on the planet to choose
It’s mainly the Southern Sydney ones you’ll bound to find
abuse
But if you’re looking for ‘iconic Australiana’ you’ll be amused
Your passport information will only ever state
That you’re welcomed in the ‘lucky country’
While others have had to wait
Because ‘others’ wear head dress and don’t even drink beer
And others may bed each other and ‘they’ we consider QUEER
Let’s get it straight, if you fart you’re a mate
If you’re devoid of social conscience... you’re in the gate
There are two types of people we really don’t want to buy
Those who are black and those who ask ‘why’?
Welcome to AUSFAILURE
my grandmother was a painter
mostly landscapes
now she can only describe them
words like poetry
thoughts like scholars
no matter how much I read and write
I always feel like a student in the presence of refugees
my grandmother’s stories
came back like Haifa’s waves
the outside world may never mention their names
but the roots of olive trees
will never forget what happened
Remi Kanazi is a Palestinian-American poet and writer based in New
York City. He is the co-founder of the political website, PoeticInjustice.net.
His political commentary, which primarily focuses on Palestine, has been
featured in numerous print and online publications. He recently appeared
in the New York Arab-American Comedy Festival and has been regularly
featured on the Al Jazeera English program, The Listening Post.
Despite a formal apology by the Australian state for its discriminatory
policies towards the Aborigines, the community continues to face
institutionalized racism (© Mick Talkas, Reuters)
Adam Hill is a Sydney based visual / performing artist and Educator who
is celebrating a decade of solo art practice. Born in Western Sydney, Adam
is genealogically connected to the Aboriginal peoples of Mid- North Coast,
(Dhungatti Country) “Australia”. Adam is widely collected as a contemporary
painter and has toured internationally both solo and accompanying dancers
as a performer of the Yidaki. Adam continues to oppose Colonial Rule either
on the continent of his ancestors or anywhere. Adam wholeheartedly supports the plight of his Palestinian brothers, sisters, aunts and uncles.
Winter 2010
17
Poetry & Prose
For Two Friends Murdered
by Michael Burton
Wall
by Dr. Max Lane
Long. Thick. Grey. Dark. Tall.
Ugly, dirty, casting cold shadows this wall.
Stealing land, stealing rights, stealing life
Not damming, but provoking strife
It zigs and zags and curls and snakes
Land and home and farm, it takes and takes
A moat for fortresses defending wealth
Perched on hilltops denizens of stealth
Film critics Alexis Tioesco and Nika Bohinc.
A white bird
flying swallow-lightly through dark pillars
gives my soul the strength it needs.
Remembering my beloved
singing as the light falls softly
fills my heart with hope.
The knives and guns of this world’s wickedness
seem at times to be a force
in which all good
is utterly destroyed.
A people sliced and carved and chopped
Olive trees and leaders, both severed and lopped
Tears and screams are the traffic’s herald
Funeral marches, cars and trucks, remember the felled.
Black and scratched adorned with razor wire
They are the walls of a hearth where burns a blazing fire
Blank is the countenance along the fenced space
Deep are the furrows and scars cut into the mourner’s face.
The wall is cement, brick, wire and steel
Built by hand and machines who do not feel.
The wall is oppression, death and a dead mind’s greed
Tear it down with the strength that freedom’s spirit does breed.
But love endures
and is the greater force.
We need to remember
when we feel overwhelmed by knives and guns.
The goodness that I still see shining in your eyes
cannot be taken from the world;
it shines on still.
This poem arose after the slaying of Alexis Tioseco and his
girlfriend Nita on September 1st, 2009 in Manila. Alexis
was an inspirational Filippino film critic who supported
indigenous Filipino films and had dared to take a stand
against the mainstream establishment.
Michael Burton is a New Zealander presently working as a speech and
drama teacher and speech therapist in Sydney, Australia. He is the writer
of many plays and for a time was a performer of solo shows such as
those about Beethoven (Being Beethoven), Rembrandt (In Peace with
Darkness), a New Zealand soldier in World War II (Gunner Inglorious
by Jim Henderson) and about murdered UN Secretary General Dag
Hammarskjold (Naked Against the Night). [email protected]
18
The wall looming
over Aida refugee
camp (© M. Azzah)
Max Lane is a writer and lecturer on Indonesian politics, history and
literature and Southeast Asian affairs. He has published a high-profile
text on modern Indonesia (Unfinished Nation: Indonesia before and
after Suharto, Verso, 2008) and translated the works of an important
Indonesian writer (Pramoedya Ananta Toer) and dramatist (W.S.Rendra).
He has also lectured in a number of universities in the region.
Where the Magnolia Tree Blooms
by Valerie Khayat
Nothing calls.
Here, now
there is still home for me
here now.
I cannot go so easily
My heart cannot extend
the way it once did
to the same lengths.
Goodbyes are more frequent
and always more difficult to perform
heavier with finitude
and embraces, more narrow
to suffocate the stinging of departure
In the evening, tiny windows overflow with golden light
Letting out sounds of the everyday hiding life
a woman cleaning dishes, a young girl singing to the radio
a grandfather spoon feeding his grandchild on a balcony
While a bell tolls in the distance
in the garden it is the blue hour
This year, I turned twenty-five
here
She gave me the first gift he ever gave her
1945, Alessandria, she was nineteen
I have learned there is nothing to conquer
Not hearts, not lands
Only one’s silence
Paths get broken and mended again redirected
My body inhabits one place
my blood, many
A Tamil Mother’s Laugh
by Bhagavadas
Sriskanthadas
It’s not a skeleton on stilts!
The stride of a scrawny woman.
Anguish engraved on her face.
Urgency gives gait purpose.
Swiftly, she reaches Chemmani*.
A cemetery filled with ‘mass graves’.
Her son rests here with other ‘terrorists’.
Euphemism for ‘Tamils’ in Sri Lanka.
She laughed!
An arch at a distance.
A raven offers a harsh cry.
A sentry post; hidden by sand bags.
She turns and briskly walks.
Direction different though path the same.
Ancient temple in her sight again.
Head failed to tilt, sign of disrespect!
Here once she prayed; made offerings.
Not now!
She laughed!
She knew soldiers kidnapped her son.
Tortured, killed and dumped at Chemmani.
A pantheon of deities remain listless.
Like the vicious state.
A dereliction of duty!
She laughed!
*Name of a place where a cemetery, known for mass graves,
is located in northern Sri Lanka.
Ta m i l s h e l d i n
concentration camps
by government
troops during
fighting in Sri Lanka,
May 2009. (source:
UKtamilnews.com)
Valerie Khayat is a performing poet/singer-songwriter and a graduate
student in Media Studies at Concordia University. Valerie has been an
active presence since 2004 in the artistic community from folk to poetry/
spoken word taking part in various events, many in connection to non-profit
and grassroots organizations. In 2007 she released her first book of poetry,
The Road to Vesper, and her first full-length CD Resonance in blue.
Bhagavadas Sriskanthadas is a writer, poet and actor who writes
in both English and Tamil. Also writes for newspapers and journals in
English and Tamil. Has acted in plays, performed in Sydney, Canberra
and Colombo.
Winter 2010
19
Poetry & Prose
Untitled
By The Narcissist
(Narcy)
OF PALESTINE (a Fragment)
by Danny Gardner
The eyes of this stripped-bare landscape
have been stolen, too:
it evades, bow-headed - looked upon not looking.
Baghdad on fire in the
bombing that preceded
the 2003 invasion of Iraq
(source: aljazeera.net)
public sentence....
hang me by the gallows near where the sorrow arrows
pierce my rotten halo
How do you say No to unshackled pharaohs while Tackling Arabs?
They say the trick to be free depends on how you behave
for wealth and enslave yourself,
I’dd rather pray for health, somewhere between heaven and
hell in a verse you could very well mistake for Earth
They Walk With with pride (over me)
strides of their egos bruise yours (sobering)
which side you gonna be though choose yours
connect four and the dots will fall in line, hopefully
All In Time, hang me by the gallows, rewind the tape and Drop
History Repeats itself, The Clutter of the Human Stutter,
And there were many people who were here first,
but the names of their towns have been changed.
There were many who came here more recently,
but their identities have been obliterated.
There are many who came back and are now unafraid.
There are many who never left but hide no more.
There are many others who live here, in part of their minds,
for an ideal.
There are many who were brought here
because there was nowhere else for them.
There are many who believe they’ve always been here
in their hearts.
No one asks their God why
the promised land was made so small.
Brother.
I’dd rather see the end smiling then to be a friend while we
unfree the bends silence homie read the trends violence
only speaks to these days, so the peace seems phased out,
Rip The Tree from the Root, Pull the Page Out.....
Egyptian myst on the tints of my windows,
I roll them down to catch a glimpse of my kinfolk
Ancestry so lost, I can’t to pray for my soul so,
it’ll cost to see me flyer like paying for promo
No Higher than to play with the yo-yo of life, I Pull Strings
till a Puppet Master feels the
the wrath of soot and plaster could have last a millenium if
you asked the wood
to be hung, Divide and Conquer can only see One.
The Palestinian
village of Lifta, one of
the few depopulated
villages still standing.
(© BADIL)
End.
The Narcicyst, or Yassin Alsalman is The Iraqi-Canadian MC. He seeks
solace in the rhythm and the rhyme, producing impeccably-crafted and
stirring songs using Soul, Middle Eastern Funk, and boom bap Hip-Hop
as sonic touchstones. In the process, The Narcicyst has become known
as “an emcee’s emcee”, garnering national and international attention for
his provocative stances on cultural demonization, war, love and justice.
He is currently featured in a lead role in City of Life as an actor, and
is working on a follow-up album to his critically acclaimed independent
album. He is also a published author and poet, releasing a book on Arab
Identity “Fear of an Arab Planet” and an upcoming novel.
20
Danny Gardner was born in Tasmania in 1953 and is a novelist, poet
and freelance journalist specializing in sport, travel, art and history. He
has lived in England and the US, and been domiciled in Sydney since
1982. He has had numerous poems and articles published in Australian
newspapers, magazines and anthologies and read his work extensively
to live audiences in Great Britain and the United States. He has written
two other novels: the Green Diary, and Beyond his Point. This poem was
first published in Live Wires – Live Poets Press, 1997
Shalom Salaam
by Ehab Lotayef
(© Ishmael Shammout)
Salaam, Shalom
Shalom, Salaam
Don’t show me maps
and border plans
First set me free, untie my hands
Salaam, Shalom
Shalom, Salaam
What do we tell an unborn child
about the world he’ll grow to find?
Salaam, Shalom. I’m human too
Shalom, Salaam. I’m just like you
My hands - stretched out await your hands,
not some handouts
wrapped in kind words
Salaam, Shalom
Let’s talk some more,
but while we talk, please break the chains
Salaam, Shalom
Shalom. Salaam
By that far land we both hold dear,
let’s take an oath; let’s make it clear:
There’ll be no slaves and masters there
Ehab Lotayef is a Canadian poet of Egyptian origin. His latest collection “To Love a Palestinian Woman” was published by TSAR
(www.tsarbooks.com) in 2010.
Winter 2010
21
New Years Leaving Egypt
by Andy Young
When that war started
we were standing on the street
outside the coffee shop.
Everyone stopped to stare
at the television bolted
above the roasting coals.
Hands hacked the air,
the steam of tea,
and the ‫ع‬, the letter
I can’t say, thickening
around us: it comes
from the place that closes
when we choke, a sound
like someone calling out
from under a fallen wall—
The next day, you took me
to the airport, pointed
out the prison trucks
on Abu Abbas Street,
the riot police sporting stylish
berets and effective batons.
I pictured you returning
alone, what might
happen in the weeks
before you came home
to me, blinked hard
as you translated the paper
where your president grinned
from the front page,
shaking hands with the leaders
as if to say it’s a deal; my president
somewhere behind the makers
sinking his seal into wax.
The next page: tiny bodies
with smashed heads cleaned
and wrapped in simple white.
In another shot
a dozen or more
lined up like comb tines,
stretching to the frame’s edges
in fabrics bright as packages,
elaborate scrawl of supplication
fastened at the middles and heads—
they will recede as I pass over
Europe to land in America
where I will not hear the ‫ع‬
which means eye—
doesn’t smoke look delicate
rising above the buildings,
from the distance of the seat’s
small screen? Phosphorous
whitens the plumes, sprays
sparks of fire in tidy fountains…
my sky would explode eight hours
By Mohammed Mohsen
Ripples in your shadow
Each time my hands erupt
As I sail ships from ice
Towards capitols
Sunk in between metal and petal
Yet to conjugate a few of the eternities
Where even beasts claim a will for love
As prayers drain each of the waves
Sea by sea
My blood is a red bird
Whirring
Somewhere
Beyond earth and bullet
Take my anchor and descend
The void deepest of your absence
Before I get to dissect the cloud
A pronoun in limbo.
The crack on the forehead
Of a grandmother
To the sweat of her daughter
Do remember that olive tree
Torn from the classic youth of a father
Do remember
That suspended tree
A wounded shrine where history
gathers
Each time the sky blinks
I die at a poem
Only to born as another, words wiser
before yours if
the night were not
called off
Andy Young is the co-editor of Meena Magazine, a bilingual Arabic-English literary journal, and
teaches Creative Writing at New Orleans Center for Creative Arts. Her work was recently featured
on National Public Radio’s “The World” and published in Best New Poets 2009 (University of
Virginia Press), Callaloo, Guernica, and Language for a New Century: Contemporary Poetry from
the Middle East, Asia & Beyond (W.W. Norton & Co). She has published two chapbooks, All Fires
the Fire (Faulkner House Books) and mine (Lavender Ink), and has been awarded the Faulkner
Festival’s Marble Faun Poetry Award, a Louisiana Division of the Arts Fellowship, a Surdna ArtistTeacher Fellowship, and writing residencies at the Santa Fe Arts Institute and the Vermont Studio
Center. She was an invited guest to poetry festivals in Nicaragua and El Salvador. Her work has
also appeared in electronic music, buses in Santa Fe, flamenco productions, jewelry designs by
Jeanine Payer, and a tattoo parlor in Berlin.
22
Redone
Mohammed Mohsen (Third generation refugee
from al-Lydd) is a Toronto based visual artist. His
current art work explores issues of apathy and
empathy through videogame based installation.
Secondary
Displacement
Palestinian Refugees in Jordan and the Revocation of
Citizenship
Interview with Anis F. Kassim by Hazem Jamjoum
The corrugated iron roofs
of al-Baqaa refugee camp,
Jordan 2008. (© Anne Paq,
activestills)
HJ: What legal status was afforded Palestinians who came under Jordanian control after the 1948 Nakba?
AK: On 19 May 1948, the Jordanian army entered the area of central Palestine that the Zionist forces
were unable to occupy, and began the process of legally incorporating central Palestine into the Jordanian
Kingdom. As part of this process, on 20 December 1949, the Jordanian Council of Ministries amended the
1928 Citizenship Law such that all Palestinians who took refuge in Jordan or who remained in the western
areas controlled by Jordan at the time of the law’s entry into force, became full Jordanian citizens for all legal
purposes. The law did not discriminate between Palestinian refugees displaced from the areas that Israel
occupied in 1948 and those of the area that the Jordanian authorities renamed the “West Bank” in 1950.
On one hand, this citizenship was forced upon the Palestinians who did not really have much of a say in
the matter. On the other, this was a welcome move because it saved those Palestinians the hardship of
living without citizenship.
HJ: How was the process for the revocation of citizenship complex?
AK: First of all, I should note that the law itself has not been officially amended, so what I am about to
describe is still what is officially in effect today. First of all, the Jordanian Constitution, adopted in 1952,
states that citizenship is a matter to be regulated by a law, and the Jordanian Citizenship Law was indeed
Winter 2010
23
Secondary
Displacement
adopted in 1954 replacing that of 1928 and its amendment.. According to this law, it is possible to revoke the
citizenship of a Jordanian citizen who is in the civil service of a foreign authority or government. The citizen
must be notified by the Jordanian government to leave that service and, if the citizen does not comply, the
Council of Ministries is the body with the authority that is able to decide to revoke his citizenship. Even if
the Council does decide to revoke the citizenship, this decision must then be ratified by the King, and even
then, the citizen whose citizenship was revoked has the right to challenge the Council of Ministries’ decision
in the Jordanian High Court, and it is this court’s decision that is binding and final. These procedures are
being completely ignored when the citizenship of a Jordanian of Palestinian origin is revoked.
HJ: Did the status of Palestinians in Jordan change after the 1967 War with the Israeli occupation of the West Bank?
AK: No. their status remained as Jordanian citizens.
HJ: When did the differentiation between Palestinian citizens of Jordan begin?
AK: Today we can speak of five kinds of Palestinian citizens of Jordan. The first differentiation came in
the early 1980s when the Jordanian government was concerned that Israeli policies and practices aimed to
squeeze out the Palestinian inhabitants of the occupied West Bank; to empty out the Palestinian territories
to replace them with Jewish settlers. The Jordanian government then created the first real differentiation
between its Palestinian citizens by issuing differentiated cards.
Those who lived habitually in the West Bank were issued green cards, while those who habitually lived in
Jordan but had material and/or family connections in the West Bank were issued yellow cards. The sole
purpose of these cards at the time was so that the Jordanian authorities at the King Hussein (Allenby)
Bridge—the only crossing point between Jordan and the occupied West Bank—could monitor the movement
of these card holders, enabling the Jordanian authorities to know how many Palestinian West Bankers had
crossed into Jordan, and to ensure that they returned, essentially a kind of statistical device. Indeed, this
was a wise policy in terms of countering the Zionist plans to continue the ethnic cleansing of Palestine.
The major turning point came with the Jordanian disengagement (fak al-irtibat) from the West Bank on
31 July 1988.
Children in the narrow streets of alWihdat refugee camp, Jordan 2008.
(© Anne Paq, activestills.org)
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HJ: What was the disengagement?
AK: Since 1948 when central Palestine came under Jordanian control, the Jordanian government has claimed
the West Bank as part of the kingdom. By 1988, the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) had come to
be recognized on an Arab and, to some extent, international level as the sole legitimate representative of
the Palestinian people, but the Israelis and Americans were still refusing to recognize the PLO, let alone to
officially communicate with it. Jordan’s King Hussein shrewdly took the decision to disengage from the
West Bank as a message to the United States and Israel that if they were going to negotiate with anyone
over the fate of Palestinians in the West Bank, it should be with the PLO. In the famous speech he delivered
on 31 July 19887 in which he declared the disengagement—and we have to remember that this was during
the most intense period of the first Intifada— King Hussein stated that the purpose of the disengagement
was to support the Palestinians’ struggle for self determination by relinquishing his claim to that territory.
HJ: How was the disengagement a “turning point” for Palestinians’ status as Jordanian citizens?
AK: When the disengagement was declared, the color of the cards (yellow and green), that had been
used as a statistical device, became the criteria for determining the citizenship status of a citizen. The
government issued instructions to the effect that those who habitually lived in the West Bank, that is green
card holders, on 31 July 1988 were “Palestinian citizens,” while those who were living in Jordan or abroad
were Jordanian. Put another way, over one-and-a-half million Palestinians went to bed on 31 July 1988 as
Jordanian citizens, and woke up on 1 August 1988 as stateless persons.
HJ: You previously mentioned that we can speak of five kinds of Palestinian citizens of Jordan. What are
the different kinds of status among Palestinians citizen of Jordan currently?
AK: The first category we can call hyphenated Palestinian-Jordanians. These are Palestinians who were
in Jordan on the date of the disengagement with no material connection to the West Bank or Gaza Strip,
or who were Jordanian citizenship holders abroad. These are regarded as Jordanians for all legal purposes.
The Palestinians in the second category are the green card holders whose citizenship was revoked by the
government orders that I described earlier.
The Palestinians in the third category are the yellow card holders, who kept their citizenship after
the disengagement, but many of whom have more recently faced the revocation of their Jordanian
citizenship rights.
The fourth category is that of blue card holders. These are 1967 Palestinians refugees from the occupied
Gaza Strip who are in Jordan and who were never given citizenship rights. They are in a very miserable
position because, since they are not Jordanian, they cannot enjoy any of the benefits of citizenship in this
country: they cannot access public schools or health services, they cannot get driving licenses, they cannot
open bank accounts, or purchase land. They are mostly concentrated in the refugee camps in the Jerash area,
specifically the one called “Gaza Refugee Camp” which is generally known as the worst of the refugee
camps in Jordan in terms of living conditions. To build a tiny house in the camp, they need to get several
permits from several government departments. While they receive some modest support from UNRWA,
any support that comes from the rest of the society has to be approved by Jordanian security authorities.
The fifth, and newest, of the categories is that of Jerusalem residents. These have always been a special
case: the Israelis consider them permanent residents of Israel without any citizenship rights, while for
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Jordan they are citizens whose status was not affected by the disengagement. The problem now is that the
Israelis, as part of their ongoing ethnic cleansing project, are revoking the residency rights of Palestinians
in Jerusalem who cannot prove that their “center of life” is in that city, to use the terms of the Israeli High
Court. The Jordanian government has yet to officially take a position on the Jordanian citizenship rights of
these Jerusalemite Palestinian citizens of Jordan whose residency in Jerusalem has been revoked by Israel.
This is now another emerging problem.
HJ: You mentioned that yellow card holders have been facing the revocation of their Jordanian citizenship
in recent years. Can you expand on this?
AK: The main institution that handles this issue is the Follow-up and Inspection Department (al-mutaba’a
wa al-taftish) of the Jordanian Ministry of Interior. To understand what’s happening you need to understand
that the way Jordanian citizenship works since 1992 is that every citizen must have a “national number”
(raqam watani). Anyone who does not have this number is not a citizen.
In recent years, the Follow-up and Inspection Department has been expanding on the scope of its authority
in interpreting the 1988 government regulations dealing with the revocation of Palestinians’ Jordanian
citizenship. We need to keep in mind also that these regulations were never made public, and that in fact
no policy, let alone law, dealing with the revocation of Palestinians’ citizenship in Jordan has ever officially
been made public. Originally, as I described, 31 July 1988 was treated as a cut-off date, if you were a green
card holder in the West Bank, your citizenship was revoked, and otherwise you remained a citizen. The
Department has since expanded to the revocation of citizenship from others under other pretexts.
For instance, many Palestinian citizens of Jordan were able to acquire Israeli-issued West Bank residency
permits through such procedures as family-reunification since 1967. Of course, part of Israel’s ethnic
cleansing policies manifested as revocation of West Bank residency permits over the years under various
pretexts. For example, at one point West Bank residency permit holders who were away from the West
Bank for more than three years had their residency revoked by the Israelis. The Follow-up and Inspection
Department of the Jordanian Interior Ministry has revoked national numbers (i.e. citizenship) from many
Palestinians who had their West Bank residency permits revoked by the Israelis under the pretext that these
people should have kept these residency permits, and that the Palestinian should go and get the Israelis to
reissue them their West Bank residency permits.
Another example is that of PLO or Palestinian Authority (PA) employees. Even though a Jordanian citizen
can work for any other government, many Palestinian citizens of Jordan who have taken jobs in PA
institutions have been stripped of their national numbers. A more recent example is that of the Jordanian
parliamentary elections [November 2010]. Many of the Palestinians who went to register as voters were
sent to the Follow-up and Inspection Department where they had their national numbers revoked.
Ultimately, however, it is difficult to discern a particular logic to the post-1988 revocations. In some
cases, one person or group within the family has their citizenship revoked, while others in the same family
remain citizens. With regards to employment in the PLO or PA, there are PA parliamentarians and ministers
with Jordanian national numbers, while some Palestinian citizens of Jordan, for example, have had their
citizenship revoked for working for a PA-owned Company or civil institution. We can only say that so far
it seems very arbitrary. I should also add that this wave of citizenship revocation means that yellow card
holders live with the perpetual fear of any interaction with the government bureaucracy, since this could
result in being sent to the Follow-up and Inspection Department and having their citizenship revoked.
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Market in al-Baqaa refugee
camp, Jordan 2008. (© Anne
Paq, activestills.org)
HJ: Is there a way to know how many Palestinians have had their Jordanian citizenship revoked since 1988?
AK: No, these numbers are kept secret by the Jordanian Ministry of Interior and are not made public.
There are various estimates, but these numbers vary. The most well-known of these is that of the Human
Rights Watch report that stated that over 2700 Palestinians citizens of Jordan had their citizenship revoked
between 2004 and 2008, but this number is based on a journalistic article in a Jordanian newspaper, and so, in
addition to not giving information on the years before or after the period, are not to be taken as authoritative.
HJ: What is the effect of the revocation of citizenship on the people involved?
AK: They become like the blue-card holders from the Gaza Strip that I talked about before without the
ability to access any government services, open bank accounts, etc. It should be mentioned though that there
is a potentially very dangerous situation for Jordan; if this trend continues it will become a “ghetto state.”
When you forfeit a Jordanian’s citizenship and keep him in Jordan because you don’t have the power to
send him to Palestine—because the Israelis of course refuse—you will end up with over a million stateless
Palestinians within your borders, and who have nowhere to go.
HJ: Earlier you described the Jordanian law of citizenship and the various levels of government and
judiciary through which the revocation of citizenship must pass to become final. Can Palestinians who
have had their Jordanian citizenship revoked make use of what you described as an advanced citizenship
law to challenge the Follow-up and Inspection Department’s actions?
AK: As I described above, there is no question that the revocations of citizenship that the Jordanian authorities
have carried out since 1988 contradict the written law and indeed the constitution. Under the law, the revocation
of citizenship must follow the procedures I spoke about earlier, and are not the subject to such things as the
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Displacement
color of your card or regulations. As it stands, however, a junior officer of the Follow-up and Inspection
Department can decide the fate of a citizen’s citizenship rights. It is now a more simple matter to revoke a
yellow card-carrying citizen from his citizenship than it is to revoke their driving license! With the revocation
of a driving license, the citizen has the right to challenge the revocation in a court. The Inspection and Followup Department is indeed the only government department that is not subject to judicial review.
The government justifies this by stating that the revocation of citizenship by this Department is an “act of
state.” There is one judge, Justice Farouq Kilani, who was president of the Jordanian High Court of Justice
who did challenge the government’s position, and stated that citizenship is a matter regulated by law and not
regulations, and that therefore the actions of the Department are null and void. As a result of his ruling—
this was in 1998—the Minister of Justice demanded his resignation, and Kilani resigned. He subsequently
gave two public lectures on the topic, and wrote a book called Independence of the Judiciary, an excellent
treatise in which he describes in detail both his landmark ruling and his encounter with the Justice Minister.
His ruling was very correct, constitutionally sound and legally unchallenged. The Jordanian judiciary has a
long tradition of reviewing administrative decisions, including decisions involving citizenship. As it stands
now, the situation in Jordan is very suffocating on this issue of citizenship revocation because there is no
right to appeal since the government treats these decisions as “acts of state,” and it is practically impossible
to take these issues to an international court.
It is also important to mention that there is no refugee law in Jordan. As such, once the citizenship is
revoked, the Palestinian refugee is left with no political, civil or economic rights.
HJ: Besides the position that citizenship revocation is an “act of state,” how does the Jordanian government
justify stripping its Palestinian citizens of their citizenship rights and rendering them stateless?
AK: There have been several justifications or excuses given. Jordanian officials maintain, for example,
that the revocations are designed to force Palestinians to stay in Palestine, to stop the Zionist leadership
from implementing its ethnic cleansing project. This argument is usually framed within the paradigm of
the “alternative homeland” project, the Israeli right-wing’s position that Palestinians have a homeland,
and this homeland is Jordan. We do not debate the importance of these goals, and of full-fledged rejection
of the “alternative homeland” project on all fronts. Mixing this in with the issue of Palestinian citizenship
rights in Jordan is like mixing apples and pears. The “alternative homeland” is a national issue, and thus
should not be treated solely at the Jordanian level, but through Jordanian-Palestinian-Arab coordination
as an Arab summit item. Such a political issue should not and cannot be mixed with a human rights issue
such as the rights of Palestinian citizens of Jordan. Moreover, the people who are fighting the “alternative
homeland” project are the Palestinians themselves who have fought it with their own bodies in these decades
of spilled Palestinian blood. Actually, if Jordanian officials are sincere about their political position, they
should take more credible action against the Israelis to force them to leave the Palestinians in peace and
to allow the refugees to return, as is their internationally recognized right.
Furthermore, as a sovereign state, the Jordanian government could have taken steps during the negotiation
of the Wadi Araba Israeli-Jordanian peace settlement to insist on such things as allowing Jordanian citizens
to maintain their West Bank residency permits, and to restore those that had been stripped. As it stands
now, the Jordanian government does not have the power to push for such a residency permit to be issued
to an individual, and so by stripping them of their Jordanian citizenship, these individuals are left stranded
with nowhere to go. But also as it stands, the Jordanian government can stop security coordination with
Israel, and can stop the marketing of Israeli products in Jordan. Lately, the Jordanian Ministry of Industry
has allowed the entry of 2500 types of Israeli products into the Jordanian market.
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A n o t h e r j u s t i fi c a t i o n t h a t
Jordanian officials forward is that
they are not revoking citizenship,
rather they are “correcting the
situation” of certain individuals
who were wrongly classified,
that all they are doing is simply
dropping the national number.
“Correcting the situation” is the
new catch-phrase you see. They
say this to avoid contradiction
of the Follow-up and Inspection
Department’s actions with the
law and constitution, but the fact
remains that simply dropping the
national number is in effect the
total revocation of citizenship.
HJ: Do you see any way that this
situation can be reversed?
AK: The January 2010 report
of Human Rights Watch8 about
Used clothes and shoes for
the citizenship revocation raised
sale in a market in al-Wihdat
some awareness both locally,
refugee camp, Jordan 2008.
(© Anne Paq, activestills.org)
on an Arab level as well as
internationally, but this was shortlived and has not alleviated the situation. This issue requires an international campaign of human rights
organizations because there is no venue left to air your grievances. Ultimately, the situation would best be
alleviated by addressing the root-cause of the situation of these Palestinians, which is the implementation
of Palestinians’ right to return to the lands from which they were displaced. Until then however, more
attention needs to be given to this thus-far largely-ignored issue, and the Jordanian laws and constitution
need to be respected and implemented by restoring the citizenship of those whose rights were revoked,
and ensuring that the law is followed in any future case of citizenship revocation.
*Anis F. Kassim is an international law expert and practicing lawyer in Jordan. He was a member of the
Palestinian legal defense team before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in the 2004 landmark case
on Israel’s separation wall, and that led to the ICJ’s Advisory Opinion on the Legal Consequences of the
Construction of a Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.
*Hazem Jamjoum is the former communications officer of the Badil Resource Center for Palestinian
Residency and Refugee Rights and editor of al-Majdal.
Winter 2010
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Displacement
From Haifa, to Baghdad and then Santiago: Chile’s
Palestinian refugee community, past and present.
by Douglas Smith
The residents of al-Tanf faced many
hardships over the years, including
periodic rainstorms that left tents
inundated with water and sewage.
(© UNHCR/ B.Auger)
F
rom the outset, Chile is probably one of the last countries one would consider when trying to
understand the effects of the Nakba and the depth of the ongoing Palestinian refugee crisis.
Geopolitically, it could not be any farther away from the conflict and the displacement imposed on
Palestinian refugees. However, recent events, as well as a long history of the world’s largest Palestinian
community outside the Middle East, tell a different story.
In the Spring of 2008, 117 Palestinian refugees arrived in Chile, fleeing the horrors of the US invasion
in Iraq, where they lived as refugees, having been expelled by Zionist forces during the 1948 Nakba.
After the completion of their two-year resettlement program, the question of Chile’s significance in the
Palestinian refugee community worldwide, their struggle for the right to return and for fair treatment before
its implementation, is ever more relevant and present.
Al-Tanf refugee camp and endless displacement
With frequent sandstorms, sub-zero temperatures by night, scorching heat by day, constant threat from
scorpions and nearby freight traffic, it was no surprise that Al-Tanf refugee camp made it to the “top five
1
worst situated refugee camps in the world,”according to Refugees International However, it was not poor
planning that lead to the conditions of this camp, but rather the ongoing policies of foreign intervention in
30
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the Middle East, made worse by the refusal to allow certain people, displaced as a result of this violence,
the freedom to cross international borders to get to safety. In effect, the refusal at the Syrian border forced
fleeing Palestinians themselves to build the camp later known as Al-Tanf. Many of these refugees are
stateless Palestinians who were expelled from their homes in 1948 by Zionist militias. Around 5,000 of
them from Haifa and its surrounding villages fled to Baghdad and now find themselves once again having
to start a new life, in new countries, even farther from the place they identify as home.
After the 2003 U.S. invasion of Iraq, sectarian violence soared in the instability of the newly installed Iraqi
government. In this climate, Palestinian refugees in Iraq became targets of sectarian violence as they were,
often erroneously, considered sympathizers of Saddam Hussein and other times simply for being Palestinian.
They soon found themselves in a situation, like many other communities in Iraq at that time, in which their
neighbourhood was being shelled, their family members and friends kidnapped, tortured and killed. Much
of the torture was carried out by armed militias and government forces infiltrated by secatrian militas.
Under Hussein’s regime, Palestinians living in Iraq were often used as political capital in the Iraqi regime's
discourse on wider Middle East politics, as well as internal unrest. Essentially, soon after Hussein came
to power, he voiced public support for Palestinian resistance and granted Palestinians living in Iraq nearly
the same rights as Iraqi citizens. But their acceptance into Iraqi society only fueled resentment, especially
amongst the Shi’a majority who, like many other marginalized ethnic and religious groups, were often the
target of brutal government repression.
However, in spite of the support and recognition that Palestinians had received, the travel documents issued to some
Palestinians by the Hussein regime during that period (as opposed to the gerenal ID cards which all Palestinians
received) were never recognized by any other state, including the new Iraqi government. So, when they tried to
flee to neighboring countries, along with so many other Iraqis, they were turned down at both the Jordanian and
Syrian borders for lack of acceptable travel documents. And thus refugee camps such as Al Tanf, where the 117
Palestinians now resettled in Chile were living, were spontaneously set up by the refugees in the “no man’s land”
between Iraq and Syria, in which over 1300 of them ended up languishing for years until its closure in February 2010.
In essence, although the community was mostly comprised of refugees from the 1948 Nakba, due to its
establishment, smaller numbers of Palestinians fleeing the 1967 occupation of the West Bank, and the 1991
expulsion of Palestinians from Kuwait, meaning that some families had experienced forced displacement
for the third or fourth time in less than 60 years.
Palestinian children wander
between the tents at al-Tanf.
(© UNHCR/ B.Diab)
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Local and international solidarity
The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which maintained the
isolated camp by trucking in all its supplies of water and food, set out to try to find host countries for those
living in Al Tanf. It was at that point that Palestine solidarity activist and documentary filmmaker, Adam
Shapiro, got involved and started to communicate with people in potential host countries to help facilitate
their resettlement. One of those countries was Chile, where there was more support than initially expected.
Chile is a country which has suffered waves of displacement, after thousands of its citizens were exiled
during the Augusto Pinochet dictatorship, which took power in a western-backed military coup in 1973.
Here, the UNHCR found genuine sympathy and understanding among the then recently elected socialist
government of President Michel Bachelet. “A lot of people in the Bachelet government [including the
President] had also experienced exile and torture under the Pinochet regime,” said Shapiro, having spoken
2
to people in the Chilean government. One prominent example was leftist Senator, Alejandro Navarro, who
had a track record of fighting for systematically oppressed people, such as the indigenous Mapuches in Chile.
Finally, after months of organizational meetings, 117 Palestinians from Al Tanf refugee camp arrived in
Santiago, Chile (the first half in April and the second in May 2008) to a series of huge, welcome celebrations
all throughout the center of the country, marking Chile’s very first state sponsored resettlement program.
In an interview with Yasna Mussa, journalist with the Federación Palestina de Chile (Palestinian Federation
of Chile), when asked what Chile’s recent resettlement program meant to her, she said that, on the one
hand, the Palestinian community appreciates the government’s solidarity, but also explained that, “it’s not
enough; it’s not enough when they continue signing trade and even security accords with the state of Israel,
while Chilean citizens (of Palestinian origin) are being mistreated at the border and not being allowed to
3
enter into Palestine, solely because of their Arab background. This is racism.”
The long history of the Chilean Palestinian community
Palestinians first started to immigrate to Chile in the late 1800s. Many of the first migrants were motivated
by economic interests that ranged from business interests for some, to a way out of poverty for others.
Since that time, Palestinians have become an integral part of Chilean society, in which many now hold
influential business and political positions.
Although most of the Palestinian community in Chile hails from this era, the fact that an established
community already existed in Chile encouraged many Palestinians to seek refuge there. The community
can be traced back to Palestinians who fled the forced Ottoman military conscriptions of World War I. Two
more waves of immigrants came after the 1948 Nakba and the subsequent 1967 occupation, during which
Israel took control of all the rest of Historic Palestine, as per the borders drawn by the British Mandate.
The total number of Palestinians in Chile is anywhere between around 250,000 to 400,000, depending on
the source. The vast majority of those within the Palestinian community in Chile are Orthodox Christians
who come from Beit Jala, and other towns and villages in the Bethlehem district. Even less is known about
the number of Palestinians who came as refugees; it would, however, be safe to say it is in the thousands.
Life as a refugee in Chile
Walking along the side street Rio de Janeiro in the Barrio Patronato, one is surrounded by Palestinian
businesses including a Falafel restaurant, an Arab sweet shop and a café called Café Hamule. It was here that
one of the Palestinians from the group that arrived from Iraq, in 2008, named Bassem, was working behind
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Palestinians refugees arrive in
San Felipe, Chile 2008. (AP
Photo/ Santiago Lianquin)
the counter. Many others have also found work in similar establishments, providing ready-made desserts and
foods to other community restaurants that wanted to bring them into the fold through familiar trades. But, for
others, finding a source of livelihood was not so simple. Although nearly everyone in this new addition to the
Palestinian community could trace their roots to Haifa and its environs, their professional and educational
backgrounds ranged from those who were university professors to others who were barely literate.
The resettlement program that was worked out between the Chilean government and the UNHCR consisted
of monthly financial support for living expenses, according to the needs and size of the family and housing
and other programs aimed at helping them settle into their new surroundings. Initially, although many of them
have since found more permanent accommodations, they were given housing in four different neighborhoods:
two in Santiago’s Recoleta and Ñuñoa districts, and two in the smaller cities of La Calera and San Felipe.
However, on the ground, the actual support was carried out by an institution called the Vicaría de la Solidaridad
(Vicariate of Solidarity). This is a community organization, founded by, and linked to, the Catholic Church, that
is unique to Chile. It was born out of the tough situation Chileans faced during the dictatorship, in which most
other organizations that were able to help with human rights cases were disbanded or worked clandestinely.
Since that time, the Vicariate has been instrumental in giving day to day support to refugees in Chile and was
consequently chosen to run part of the resettlement program on behalf of the UNHCR.
One of the Vicariate’s interpreters who worked directly with the refugees, Ishaq El-Masou, who is also
Palestinian and came to Chile after 1967, spoke at length about the hardships they faced upon arrival. Even
the support from the Palestinian community in Chile, who at first came out in great numbers to welcome them
and lend a hand, he explained, was as if “a honeymoon had came to an end,” due to how it dwindled shortly
thereafter down to a core group of dedicated individuals. He also added that, although the governmental
subsidy ended as of 31 May 2010, the Vicariate will continue their assistance in every way possible, especially
in severe cases such as one family whose father passed away, leaving behind a wife and four children.
However, perhaps the biggest challenge facing the newly arrived Palestinians, who often do not share the same
religion or speak the same language, has more to do with social class than anything else, especially among
members of the well-established Palestinian community. Marcelo Devilat Marzouka, from the Unión General de
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Estudiantes Palestinos (General Union of Palestinian Students), recounted the situation of a 15 year old teenager
named Ahmad, who began to participate in cultural events, above all with the Dabke troupe, after their arrival in
2008. Although there was definitely a language barrier, (as Marcelo himself was one of the only Arabic speakers)
it had more to do with the fact that the commute was too much for Ahmad, because the other Palestinian youth,
from third and fourth generation well-established families, held the Dabke practices in neighbourhoods that
were not easily accessible by public transportation, which eventually lead him to stop coming. However, it is
people like Ahmad who will likely be a decisive force in Chile, in terms of Palestinian solidarity, as it seems
that, in a country where not all Palestinians share the same consciousness of the displacement and exile, the
Nakba and its memory in itself has proven to be a form of politicization.
“Douglas Smith is an activist, researcher and graduate student based out of Montreal”
Update – Where are the Palestinian refugees in/from Iraq?
December 2010
At the onset of the U.S.-led war on Iraq in 2003, there were at least 34,000 Palestinian refugees living in Iraq (although the true figure
could well be tens of thousands more); their exact number and whereabouts were unknown. In 2003 UNHCR registered 23,000
Palestinian refugees in Iraq, however the process was interrupted for security reasons. Four temporary camps were established in
no-mans-land and border areas with Jordan and Syria for Palestinian refugees fleeing persecution but not having access to a country
that would provide protection to them (see: “Searching for Solutions for Palestinian Refugees Stuck in and Fleeing Iraq”, al Majdal,
issue No.33, Spring 2007).
By the end of 2010, fewer than 15,000 Palestinian refugees have remained in Iraq; 12,000 of them were registered in Baghdad in 2008.
Two of the temporary camps have been closed, and a total of 18 countries have accepted Palestinians refugees from Iraq, mostly from
the border camps (Al Waleed, Al Tanf and Al Hol) but also a small number from Baghdad.
No records exist about the whereabouts of more than 10,000 additional Palestinian refugees who were living in Iraq prior to the onset
of the war in 2003. They are likely to have fled Iraq without assistance and protection provided by any country or UN agency.
Ruweished camp: closed in October 2007.
Al-Tanf camp: closed in February 2010.
Al Waleed camp (Iraq): 264 Palestinian refugees (down from 1,367 end of December 2008).
Al-Hol camp (Syria): 441 Palestinian refugees from Iraq. (includes Palestinian refugees from Iraq moved from Al-Tanf camp upon its closure)
Palestinian refugees from Iraq Estimated Populations:
Syria: up to 2,500-3,000 Palestinian refugees from Iraq in the country.
Jordan: 500 Palestinian refugees from Iraq who have a Jordanian spouse, but the number is probably higher.
Lebanon: 300-400 Palestinian refugees from Iraq.
Turkey: Probably a few hundred.
India: 70 Palestinian refugees from Iraq (unclear).
Resettled Palestinian refugees from Iraq since 2007:
USA: 1,125 Palestinian refugees from Iraq (almost all from al Waleed camp).
Canada: 198 Palestinian refugees from Iraq.
Brazil: 117 Palestinian refugees from Iraq (from Ruweished camp).
Chile: 116 Palestinian refugees from Iraq.
New Zealand: 22 Palestinian refugees from Iraq (from Ruweished camp).
Italy: 168 Palestinian refugees from Iraq.
Norway: 400 Palestinian refugees from Iraq.
Australia: 63 Palestinian refugees from Iraq.
Great Britain: 80 Palestinian refugees from Iraq.
Finland: 34 Palestinian refugees from Iraq.
Denmark: 46 Palestinian refugees from Iraq.
France: 115 Palestinian refugees from Iraq.
Switzerland: 12 Palestinian refugees from Iraq.
Belgium: 10 Palestinian refugees from Iraq.
Sweden: 613 Palestinian refugees from Iraq.
Netherlands: 29 Palestinian refugees from Iraq.
---------------------------------For previous estimates of Palestinian refugees in and fleeing Iraq see “When Solutions are not Solutions: Palestinian Refugees stranded
in and fleeing from Iraq”, al Majdal, issue No. 35, Autumn 2007.
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Thousands of Palestinians still displaced in the
Gaza Strip
by Anne Paq - A French freelance photographer focusing on human rights and refugees and a member of the photography collective
Activestills, www.annepaq.com
Israel’s military assault on the Gaza Strip, codenamed “Operation Cast
Lead”, took place between 27 December 2008 and 18 January 2009.
Three weeks of almost uninterrupted Israeli aerial bombardments,
artillery shelling from land and sea, and ground operations resulted in
the killing of 1,414 people, including 313 children and 116 women,
and over 5,000 injured. In addition, Israel’s attack also targeted
public and private civilian property and infrastructure throughout
Gaza, encompassing residential neighborhoods, hospitals, schools,
universities, government ministries, water/sewer lines, electricity
generating stations, greenhouses, commercial establishments,
infrastructure and roads.
Photo: Kamel Sweelim, Beit Hanoun.
By the attack’s end, an estimated 2.6 percent of homes in Gaza were
completely destroyed and an additional 20 percent sustained serious
damage, forcing 80-90,000 people out of their homes to live in the
open air in the middle of winter. Two years later, more than 20,000
Palestinians are still displaced and living in dire conditions.
The majority of those displaced, as with the majority of Palestinians
in Gaza more generally, were refugees from the 1948 Nakba and
the destruction of their houses represents the second time that these
Palestinians have been deprived of their homes in a continuing story
of dispossession and displacement.
The Israeli assault on Gaza in 2008/9 rather than representing a change
in policy, merely represents an escalation in the targeting of Palestinian
homes, especially for those located in the “security buffer zone” near
the borders. One of the families visited had lost their home in 2006 as
a result of Israeli shelling and four years later are still living in a house
made of corrugated iron while they struggle to rebuild their home.
With almost no raw construction materials being allowed into Gaza,
those displaced are forced to continue to live in poor conditions. Some
displaced persons live with relatives in overcrowded apartments, rent
accomodation or live in tents. All are waiting for durable solutions
and justice.
Photo: Mona Abu Saleh, Beit Hanoun.
Photo: Samira Abu Shalouf, Al Zhara.
Photo: Ahmad Abu Hasseh, Bedouin Village.
Winter 2010
35
Kamel Sweelim, Beit Hanoun
Refugees from 1948
Photo: Kamal stands at what was the entrance to his house. The
wall demarcating the 1949 Armistice Line can be seen 400 metres
behind him in the background.
Israel destroyed Kamal’s property in stages from
the early 2000’s onwards, culminating in the
destruction of all the land in 2006, leaving only
his house standing. Despite the dire conditions,
the family were determined to stay living in the
midst of the rubble.
On the first day of the Israeli attack in 2008, the
army turned up at the property and announced
through speakers that the family had five minutes
to leave their house. The family were kept at a
distance by the army and watched as soldiers
demolished their homes. Kamal recalls the
demolition: ”The bulldozers started to smash our
house piece by piece from different angles. They
were making holes through the walls. My kids
were also watching the demolition.” The soldiers
ordered them not to return and forced them to walk
miles to a safer area where they sought shelter in a
school. Kamal's family now live in a small rented
house with four rooms.
36
Photo: “We had everything, all the fruits and vegetables you
can imagine and we even had some chickens and rabbits.
Any time you wanted to eat something you just went and
grabbed it. Now we have to borrow from the supermarkets
just to get by.”
The five houses and thirty dunums of land
bought by Kamal’s father in 1948 housed
fifty members of Kamal’s extended family
and had a variety of fruits and vegetables
planted on them.
Photo: Kamal picking fruit from one of his
remaining trees. Most of his farmland is
still inaccessible and has become part of
the ‘security buffer zone’. Shootings in the
area have become routine with a number of
casualties recorded among people who come
to the area to collect gravel.
“I used to have a rose tree of seven
colours in front of my house. I
grew it myself and would pay
whatever it takes just to see it
again. Until this moment, we are
not able to go back to our land to
farm or to rebuild our houses.”
Photo: Kamal’s mother, Maleha, shows the picture of her husband who died from a
heart attack on January 14, 2009 shortly after being informed of the destruction of his
home.
Kamal’s mother, Maleha, still remembers 1948 when her family
was forced to leave her village in what was to become Israel. Aged
13 at the time, she recalls: “We had a lot of beautiful land there but
the fighting was so intense that we were forced to flee, reaching
Rafah with nothing except a few camels. When we settled in Beit
Hanoun, my husband put all his money into buying 36 dunums of
land and we thought we would be secure.”
Winter 2010
37
Mona Abu Saleh, Beit Hanoun
Refugees from Demrah
Mona Abu Saleh’s house, located near the ‘security buffer zone’,
was destroyed during Operation Cast Lead on the 8th January.
Two of her sons and her husband were arrested together in March
2008 while another son is disabled and needs surgery but has had
his referral refused because his father is a prisoner. She lives with
her 12 children, the youngest son of which, Mustapha, was only
one year old when his father was arrested.
Photo: Mona and two of her children in front of their rented house.
“In the last war they destroyed my house and now I have to rent
this apartment. At first, we did not want to leave the house but when
the bombing got nearer we got scared and decided to leave. There
were also bulldozers which started to destroy the land nearby as
we left. We did not take anything from the house. I cannot describe
my feeling. Everything memorable in that house was gone. The
house was 180 square meters and we had space around the house
with a lovely garden full of olive trees.”
38
Photo: Mona Abu Saleh and her children sit below the poster commemorating the arrests
of their father and two brothers.
Photo: Mona stands on the remains of her house demolished in January 2009
Winter 2010
39
Samira and Silmi Abu Shalouf,
Al Zhara in the central Gaza Strip
Refugees from Marsaba.
Photo: Samira looks at old pictures with her children. “The house was perfect. At first, my
husband did not want to leave, but then we had to. We took everything we could and started
walking....Once the war ended, we went back to see what was left. There was nothing,
everything was destroyed.”
The house of the Abu Shalouf family was destroyed during Operation
Cast Lead on 17 January 2009. They have 12 children aged between
6 and 25 years old and their house was 120m² with 320 m² of land on
which they had a small chicken farm and some rabbits.
Photo: Samira and Silmi Abu Shalouf stand with their son on the site of their house of which
nothing remains.
40
Photo: Samira’s daughters looking down from the building.
When their home of 27 years was destroyed, the family had nowhere
to go and moved into an unfurnished government building in which 40
other families also live and from which they can be evicted at any time.
The children’s family have been severely traumatized by the ordeal,
are still afraid and suffer nightmares. One of the children has a speech
problem while others have uncontrollable bouts of anger. One daughter
was injured during a bombing of the house in 2004 and one son was
arrested when he was 18 years old and had been in jail for six years.
Winter 2010
41
Ahmad Tawfeeq Abu Hasseh, Bedouin Village, Northern Gaza.
Bedouin refugees from Yibna
Photo: The view from Abu Hasheesh's land of the “security buffer zone”.
Shootings in the area are frequent.
Ahmad, aged 17, was shot in the leg on 13 October in the
‘security zone’ while collecting gravel for building with
his cousin and brother. The trio were around 600 meters
away from the Green Line and were given no warning shots
before being fired upon. The bones in Ahmad’s leg were
smashed and he may require an artificial device in order
to be able to walk again properly.
Photo: Ahmad had to refrain from moving for a month while awaiting further
surgery.
Ahmad left school when he was 15 years old and
earned between six and eight dollars a day collecting
building gravel as it was the only job he could find.
Ahmad says that when he eventually recovers he
will have no choice but to return to collecting gravel:
“We have a family of 17 and I have to support them.”
Ahmad and his family live on the outskirts of a Bedouin
village in northern Gaza with a direct view of the Wall
which lies just a few kilometers away. The family moved
to this area after their 200m² house in Beit Hanoun was
destroyed by shelling during an Israeli military operation
in the summer of 2006.
42
Photo: In order to expand their living space, the family have added an old bus
which acts as an extra room.
Photo: The family now lives on government land in structures made of
corrugated iron while they await the rebuilding of their home.
Winter 2010
43
Secondary
Displacement
The Palestinian Crisis in Libya 1994-1996
Interview with Professor Bassem Sirhan
Colonel Muammar al-Qaddafi and
Yasser Arafat at the 19th Anniversary
of the Libyan Revolution, August
1988. The Libyan government
maintained a close relationship with
the PLO until the signing of the Oslo
Accords. (© Corbis Images/ Bernard
Bisson)
In 1994, after the signing of the Oslo Accords between the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) and
Israel, the Qadhafi government in Libya sought to show its objection to the agreements by expelling the
Palestinian community residing in the country. One of the Palestinians living in Libya at the time was
Professor Bassem Sirhan, we spoke to him about the Libyan policy of expulsion and the injustice that
befell the Palestinian community.
Can you tell us something about the composition of the Palestinian community in
Libya and the conditions they lived under until 1995?
Libya is not a host country for Palestinians (i.e. Palestinians are not refugees there), as is the case with
Lebanon, Syria and Jordan; it is rather one which imports skilled labor in the technical, scientific and
professional fields; therefore, the residency of any Palestinian in Libya is based on a personal or individual
contract with the state and its institutions, or with Libyan companies or foreign companies operating in
Libya. Libya calls itself “The Land of Arabs” and its leader has been referred to by the late President Jamal
Abdul-Nasser, as “The Trustee of Arab Nationalism”; it does not require any Arab to hold an entry visa or a
residency permit, regardless of the position he will be assuming or the purpose of his stay. As for residency
permits, they aim to allow their holders to open bank accounts in order for them to be able to repatriate
half of their income in hard currency to their country of origin.
The Palestinian community in Libya was very small in comparison to Palestinian communities in other
Arab host states or in Arab states which import skilled labor, according to Libyan estimates, and as per
44
Secondary
Displacement
a census conducted by the Libyan Foreign Security Agency in 1995, after the eruption of the crisis, the
number of Palestinians in Libya stood at 30,000, a very small number when compared to the number of
immigrants from other Arab countries. The number of Palestinians in Libya did not constitute any economic
burden on the country, especially since they are highly qualified, efficient, productive and devoted, which
has been the opinion of Libyan officials over the years. If the Libyan government had extended a helping
hand to Palestinian resistance or liberation movements, the same did not apply to Palestinians working in
Libya, who did not receive, during the twenty-five-year period, any dinar as donation or sign of gratitude.
What happened in 1994?
In his speech during the Sept 1 1994. celebrations, Colonel Mouamer Qadhafi announced his plan to
expel Palestinians residing in his country in order to prove to the whole world that PLO Chairman Yasser
Arafat had failed to establish a state and, therefore, was unable to fulfill the demands of the Palestinian
struggle. Palestinians residing in Libya originally thought that the Colonel's speech was nothing more than
a maneuver intended to politically attack the fragile peace accord between Arafat and Israel. Things went
on in an ordinary and normal manner during the months of September, October and November, 1994, as
Palestinians were allowed to enter and leave Libya, and their labor contracts with ministries, government
agencies and various corporations (public and private) were renewed without problems and they could
secure new labor contracts.
So when Colonel Qadhafi ordered, by phone, the Labor Ministry not to renew any labor contracts involving
Palestinians and to further refrain from ratifying (granting final approval to) any new labor contract involving
a Palestinian, even those who had obtained the necessary prior approvals from the ministries concerned,
Palestinians were stunned and started feeling deep concern and uncertainty. Furthermore, the Passports and
Immigration Department was informed, again via a telephone call, that it may not grant or renew residency
to any Palestinian, irrespective of his profession or area of practice; this affected all Palestinians, from
medical school professionals to junior technicians.
What were the feelings and reaction of the Palestinian community?
For a number of reasons these developments were met with combined feelings of doubt, shock and
astonishment, mainly because Colonel Qadhafi, during his long years in power, had been one of the Arab
leaders who showed the most support for Palestinians and their cause, and had sponsored and granted
assistance to Palestinian resistance movements. Above all, since Colonel Qadhafi had assumed power,
Palestinians working in Libya enjoyed favorable treatment, similar to that given to Libyans. At the same
time, Palestinians, whether as a community or resistance movements, had been a prime and solid ally of
Qadhafi's regime. On occasions, Libyan forces even joined Palestinians in Al-Biqaa valley in Lebanon,
and Libya generously armed Palestinian resistance fighters.
Palestinians in Libya, for the above reasons and more, sought to find a reasonable explanation for the Libyan
actions; they could find no justification. Palestinians had not committed any political crime against the Libyan
regime and did not adopt any stance that may have jeopardized, even indirectly, the reputation and position
of Libya. For example, they did not support Arafat's moves or the Oslo Accords, neither explicitly nor in
writing. The contrary is true, I was able to sense that most Palestinians in Libya opposed the Oslo Accords.
How did the crisis develop?
The official position of the Libyan government became clear in the period between mid-December 1994
and mid-February 1995, as the Libyan government adopted the following measures: (1) Deleting names
of Palestinians from the lists of renewable labor contracts which were sent by the various ministries to the
Winter 2010
45
Secondary
Displacement
Labor Ministry; (2) Returning all new labor contracts which were sent by these ministries to the Labor
Ministry for ratification; (3) Refusing, at the Passport administration, to grant residency to any Palestinian
requesting a new residency permit or whose residency had expired; (4) Circulating news that the Libyan
government prohibits any Palestinian entry to Libya; and (5) Preventing any Palestinian who had left Libya,
whether on a business trip or to meet with family members, from returning, even if his residency permit
was valid and despite the fact that he would still be entitled to receive from the Libyan government certain
labor rights and compensation.
The most crucial element in the rise of tension and evolution of the crisis came in an interview with Colonel
Qadhafi conducted by Ahmad Al-Hauni, editor in chief of Al Arab (an Arabic newspaper published in
London), in mid-February, 1995. Qadhafi responded to a question regarding the Palestinian community in
Libya by stating that: “Arafat and the United States, Israel and others declare that the Palestinian cause
has been resolved finally and exclusively. This is not true, as there are millions of Palestinian refugees
who are still out of their homeland. And as I care about the Palestinian cause, and in order to achieve the
best interest of Palestinians, I will expel the thirty thousand Palestinians who currently live in my land,
and try to secure their return to Gaza and Jericho. If Israel would not let them in, while Egypt does not
allow them to pass through its territories, then I shall set a great camp for them on the Egyptian-Libyan
borders” Qadhafi also added that “all of what I will be doing is for their best interest. No matter how they
suffer, and even if they remain in the camp for years to come, this would still be for their national interest.
And the whole world would come to the conclusion that the settlement is a big lie, and that Palestinians
are still refugees. I hereby call on all Arab states hosting Palestinian refugees to act likewise...”.
As the Colonel's statements are considered government policy in Libya, Palestinians there could not help
but feel concerned about the thought of having to stay in a camp in the empty desert, with all the misery
and suffering that would bring about, including depriving their children of the opportunity of seeking
education. The major fear for some of them derived from the fact that they might not be able to return to
any other state. It is hard to describe the state of chaos and fear that the Palestinian community in Libya
passed through during 1995, and this was compounded by the fact that the Libyan government, including
its agencies and administrations, acted passively and did not make any statements to ease the tension. The
response Palestinian employees received from the various public authorities, and the Ministries of Health
and Education regarding their status was: “Nothing new—we did not receive any information or instructions
recently. We hope it turns out OK.”
A few days later the Colonel, in his speech on the Fateh Revolution Day (September 1, 1995), expressed
his determination to expel Palestinians and called on Arab States to follow suit, while covering his arbitrary
decision with revolutionary, nationalist and patriotic rhetoric. It seems that the political pressure coming
from Egypt did not allow the Colonel to proceed with his plans to expel all 30,000 Palestinians in Libya.
For the Palestinians not formally expelled, being left in Libya without work or income is equivalent to
expelling them to the borders.
Where did the expelled Palestinians go?
Hundreds of Palestinians were expelled during the first stage. Egypt barred 143 of them from crossing
its borders, so they were practically left in no-man’s land near the Saloum border post while Libya
refused to take them back. Later on, a group of 150 Palestinians, after being stranded for weeks on
the Libyan Border, crossed into Egypt en route to Jordan and the Gaza strip. A second group of 40
Palestinians reportedly headed for Rafah, on the Egyptian border with Gaza hoping to enter the
Palestinian-controlled area.
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Secondary
Displacement
By September 1995 there were thirty-two Palestinians in the Egyptian-Libyan no-man’s land, thirty-six
at the Rafah crossings and 1,500 in Tubrok Camp, all living in severe conditions and facing humiliation
every day. Furthermore, internal Libyan flights were conducted twice daily, each carrying 300 Palestinians
from various cities in Libya to the camp at Tubrok, a coastal town in northern Libya. From September
1995 onwards, the number of Palestinians in the makeshift camp at Saloum (Al-Awda Camp) varied from
200 to 600, and maybe more. Most were low-income earners who had no other country to go after being
expelled from Libya.
A number of expelled Palestinians left Libya by sea. Syria sent a ship to carry more than 600 expelled
Palestinians carrying Syrian documents, after they got stranded on board a ship opposite the coast of
Cyprus, which denied them the right to enter its territory and did not allow their ship to dock in its
ports. Al-Hayat Daily newspaper reported that 608 Palestinians returned to Syria, while 13 of them
carrying Jordanian documents returned to Jordan. Thirty Palestinians from the ship became trapped after
being denied entry to Cyprus and were offered to be allowed to go back to Libya by Libyan authorities,
which sent a ship for that purpose; however, they refused to board the ship, and preferred to stay where
they were. Lebanon on its part turned back several hundred Palestinians who arrived from Libya on
two ships in late August 1995. Their entry was made subject to obtaining an entry visa, even for those
holding Lebanese travel documents.
On October 26, 1995, Colonel Qadhafi decided to suspend his decision to expel Palestinians for three to
six months, citing the need to give students a chance to finish the academic year as a justification for this
move. The Colonel explicitly stated, however, that upon the lapse of that period, the world would witness
thousands of Palestinians leaving Libya, with the aim of forcing the international community to recognize
the Palestinian refugees’ right to return to their homeland. During this period approximately 200 evicted
Palestinians remained waiting at the Al-Awda Camp.
In May 1996, and after the expiration of the aforementioned period, the Libyan authorities re-embarked on
an extensive process to expel the Palestinians who were still in Libya. The number of Palestinians living in
Libya went down from 30,000 before the crisis erupted in September 1995, to 17,000 in May 1996. Rumor
had it that the Libyan authorities’ plan was to group together all Palestinians in Libya and start expelling
them according to the dates when they finish their academic year. It was also said that Libya has started to
cleanup and reorganize the Al-Awda Camp.
The United Nations agencies undertook to provide humanitarian aid to the expelled Palestinians who were
stuck in the middle of the desert, as evidenced by UNRWA’s press release no. HQ/7/95 of September 13,
1995, and the joint statement on Forced Movement of Palestinians from Libya, which was issued by the
UNHCR and UNRWA on September 29, 1995. While it was understood that these matters were within
the jurisdiction of the sovereign states concerned the two press releases emphasized that the humanitarian
dimension of this developing situation called for the immediate attention. According to the first press
release, and as a result of the Libyan action, several countries in UNRWA’s area of operations started
imposing restrictions on the entry of Palestinians, even on those who had right of residence.
What were the conditions like for the Palestinians in Al-Awda Camp?
As the winter of 1995 approached, expelled Palestinians feared diseases which normally spread in an
area where the weather fluctuated between heavy rainfall and a scarcity of water. By mid-October, 1995,
several children of the stranded Palestinians were sick and two people were reported dead. As the camp
was hit by torrential rains, floods and sandstorms, conditions were deteriorating and hygiene was poor.
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Secondary
Displacement
From a humanitarian point of view the expelled Palestinians lived in severe conditions compounded by the
fact that the UNRWA was unable to provide refugees with food or health services on a regular basis since
it operates neither in Libya nor in Egypt and because Palestinians are excluded from the 1951 Convention
Relating to the Status of Refugees, meaning that they were prevented from receiving UNHCR’s full
support. The camp was in an area with a high density of land-mines planted during the Egyptian-Libyan
hostilities of 1975-1980, in addition to a large population of snakes and scorpions. The camp site did not
have sources of water and the residents often had to use their modest savings to buy food from Msaed,
the closest Libyan town. The camp residents lived in tents threatened to be torn down during the winter
because of heavy rain and flooding. In sum, the living conditions of refugees in the Al-Awda Camp were
below any humanly acceptable level.
What efforts were made to pressure the Libyan authorities and help the Palestinians?
From the start, none of the powers, parties and revolutionary and Arab-national personalities agreed with
Qadhafi’s theory or with the resulting measures that targeted Palestinians. Palestinian resistance-movement
leaders opposing the Oslo Agreement exhausted all reasonable efforts to convince their ally, Colonel
Qadhafi, to give-up his strict stance. The Colonel remained unmoved and instead requested them to back
up his decision and to support his ideas. A high level delegation representing the coalition of ten Palestinian
factions opposed to Arafat arrived in Tripoli to hold talks with Libyan officials on Qadhafi’s decision to
deport thousands of Palestinians but to no avail. The newly established Palestinian Authority submitted a
memo to the League of Arab States, requesting that the Palestinians not pay the price for Libya’s official
position on the peace accords with Israel, and called on Libya to respect the 1965 Protocol for Organizing
the Residence of Palestinians in Arab countries which granted refugees the same rights to residency and
employment as those granted to citizens of hosting Arab states.
The secretary general of the Arab League, Dr. Ahmad Esmat Abdel-Majeed, and Egyptian President
Mohammed Hosni Mubarak, tried their best to convince Qadhafi that his idea about returning Palestinians
to their homes was not practical and would result in nothing but more disaster. Expectedly, the governments
of Syria, Lebanon and Jordan did not respond positively to the Colonel’s call to expel Palestinians hosted
in these countries to the Palestinian borders. If the Colonel was attempting to utilize the Palestinian card
to lift the pressure he had been subjected to or ease the embargo imposed upon Libya, then this card failed
and did not accomplish any of its goals. It has been indisputably proved that 30,000 Palestinians means
nothing to the Western world, especially the United States.
Perhaps the most effective resistance came from the evicted Palestinians themselves. Under these inhuman
conditions, the expelled Palestinians stranded in the Saloum camp had to react, especially given the apparent
failure of the diplomatic efforts and humanitarian calls. News items told about expelled Palestinians placing
their tents near the Egyptian Saloum-borders security point, expelled Palestinians protesting on the two
sides of the highway linking Egypt with Libya and on occasions actually closing the international highway
and threatening to close it again and again, and about them entering hunger and medicine strikes. It was
made clear by the residents of the Al-Awda camp, that death would be better than this continuing saga of
endless human suffering.
How did the crisis eventually end?
In a surprise move in January 1997, the Libyan authorities offered to take back Palestinians refugees, and
further dispatched a Palestinian delegation to the tent camp to convince the refugees to return; the refuges
hurled sticks and stones at them and accused the delegation of being Libyan agents "who wanted them
to go back without guarantees." The refugees sought written guarantees that they would return to their
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Secondary
Displacement
jobs and homes. The Libyan move to return Palestinians was issued by parliamentary committees, which
emphasized the Palestinian people's right to return to their homeland and the fact that since such return
is impossible for the time being, the expelled Palestinians were offered to return to Libya. Faced with the
refugees’ constant refusal to return to Libya without written guarantees, the Libyan authorities sought the
mediation of the Palestinian Authority, but it was made clear by the refugees themselves that they were not
planning to return without receiving the said guarantees first; since they have no other Arab state to return
to. Any return to Libya without securing houses and jobs for them would prove meaningless.
The agony and suffering of the Palestinian refugees who were stranded on the Egyptian-Libyan border came
to an end in a rather unexpected way. After spending two years in the desert, Libyan soldiers forcefully
evacuated the Al-Awda camp, and ordered Palestinians residing in it (250 of them) to take buses to Tubrok
while carrying all their personal belongings. A UNHCR spokesperson in Cairo expressed his satisfaction
with the latest development and declared that "evacuating the camp was the only possible solution."
What has happened to the Palestinians who left Libya?
The Palestinians from Gaza who had no residence permit in the Gaza Strip were stuck in Libya and are
still there today. Those Palestinians who had residence permits in Lebanon and Syria suffered the least as
they were able to return to these countries and, to my knowledge, continue a fairly normal existence. A
number of professionals who I know well ended up finding well-paid jobs in the Gulf, while a still smaller
number emigrated to Europe and Canada. But the majority simply looked for a living in Syria and Lebanon.
Although the change in Libyan policy brought an end to the suffering of hundreds of Palestinians, it
is important to keep in mind that thousands of Palestinians had already been expelled by that time and
were not offered the chance to return to their jobs, especially since by then they were living in other Arab
countries, mainly Egypt, Syria and Jordan. The world media was unable to clearly specify the number
of expelled Palestinians; what may be true, though, is that their number may be as high as 15,000 of the
30,000 Palestinians who once constituted the Palestinian community in Libya.
This interview is based on an article in The Palestine Yearbook of International Law, Vo1 IX, 1996/97
p363-374, a longer article in Arabic in the Journal of Palestine Studies (Majallat Al-Dirasat Al-Filastinyah,
Issue 29, Winter 1997 and correspondence with the author.
*Bassem Sirhan is a Professor of Sociology, a Palestinian writer and a refugee in Lebanon. Professor Sirhan
earned his PhD from American University in Washington D.C and has taught in Libya, in the Western
Mountain University - College of Education (Yefren) from Sept. 1992 to July 1995 and has lived and
worked in Lebanon, Kuwait, Bahrain and Qatar. His research focuses on exiled Palestinian communities
in Lebanon, Syria and Kuwait.
Winter 2010
49
Review
However long it takes…
I
by Rosemary Sayigh
t’s rare that books about Palestine focus on the Palestinian
people rather than the territory or the issue, but here is one
that does this skillfully while providing the reader with the
relevant politico-historical framework. The author lives in the
West Bank. This means that the people whose stories he tells are
ones he has met many times over and often lived with. His gaze is
warm and human, respectful and responsive. His text conveys in
all their complexity both a tentacular occupation, and the myriad
resistances through which Palestinians mobilize themselves to
survive and outlast it.
From the vantage point of his home in Aida camp, Rich Wiles
experiences the occupation at first-hand. The frequent forays of
the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) into the camp leave dead and
wounded, homes destroyed, youths and boys arrested. A military
jeep comes upon 14-year old Mahmoud alone in an alley with his
dog, scoops him up, beats him, and throws him into a military cell. From here he is transferred to Acion
Detention Center, then to Ofer, then to Telmond prison. Charged with throwing stones and carrying a
knife, he is fined $5,000, and sentenced to more than three months in prison. Many similar cases have
been documented, but Rich Wiles fills out the details and consequences of this typical Occupation event:
the other child prisoners; the inadequate food; self-scarring in protest; a gas attack by guards; the visit
of a 10-year old brother (but they can’t hug each other through the reinforced glass). There’s a welcome
party with fireworks when Mahmoud finally gets home, but his dog has died, and he “doesn’t want to go
out any more”.
Rich visits other West Bank camps – Al-Ayn and Balata near Nablus, Jenin – and records the
experiences of other survivors of Occupation attacks. As the IOF carry out house-to-house searches
in Al-Ayn “Armour-plated lorries and bulldozers, personnel-carriers and jeeps filled every street”. He
succeeds in penetrating Al-Ayn in the later days of the siege, and meets Sena and Mahmoud. They
spent the attack with their children in their bathroom, only to have their home dynamited, without
any reason given. Rich meets a man who points to a mound of rubble and tells him, “forty of us used
to share this house, five families in total”. Planted on the mound is a red flag, symbol of resistance
and the death of martyrs. Such sieges, deaths, arrests and home demolitions are the everyday life of
West Bank camps.
Military force is the main but not the only weapon of the Occupation. Another is the checkpoints and
permits that constrain mobility. When octogenarian Abu Waleed al-Azzeh is in hospital in Jerusalem,
only eight kilometers from Aida camp, none of his extended family can obtain permits to visit him.
Since children under 16 do not require permits, it is decided that Abu-Waleed’s oldest grandson, Miras
(13-years), will make the trip. Rich accompanies him to guarantee safe passage through the checkpoints.
People’s struggles to maintain relationships in spite of the Occupation is a major theme of ‘Behind
the Wall’. It takes Aisha 16 hours to get from Bethlehem to the prison in Naqab where her son is a
prisoner, and another five hours to return. They communicate through glass. Aisha tells Rich of delight
50
Review
at seeing her son again – “He is even more handsome!” To her this is more important than the endless
delays and the body search. Her words show the politicization that occupation brings: “They put us
through all this… to try to make us not want to go through it all again…We do all this to support the
prisoners and cheer them up”.
The Occupation is brutal but also absurd, an aspect Rich illustrates through the story of Mahadi and
Susi. Cousins, from the same village, engaged to be married, Mahadi lives inside Aida camp, while
Susu lives less than three hundred metres away from the edge of the camp. The building of the Wall has
made it impossible for them to meet. The Occupation has reclassified the land after building the Wall,
so that Susu now lives in Israel and needs permission as a West Banker to be there. Her application
is refused, making her a prisoner inside her own house. As an inhabitant of Aida camp, Mahadi is
equally unable to reach Susu: He is turned back at the checkpoint. He searches for a tunnel under the
Wall. They talk by phone and wave from roof tops. They talk to each through the metal gate in the
Wall. Eventually the couple works out a way to marry: Rich comments, “Some elements of humanity
simply cannot be shackled”. In the divided village of Battir on the old ‘Green Line’, Hadr lives with
his two young daughters on the ‘Palestinian’ side. Four years ago his wife crossed to Jordan to look
after her sick father. Israel has not allowed her to return, and the Jordanians have not allowed Hadr
to join his wife.
'Girl on the Roof' - Jenin
Refugee Camp. (© Rich Wiles/
www.richwiles.com)
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It’s through such carefully told individual stories that Wiles portrays lives intended to be unlivable,
made so by deaths, imprisonments, home demolitions, immobility, unemployment, the rising costs
of basic foodstuffs, and absence of hope of a better future. All these contribute to pressure towards
‘quiet transfer’. The Apartheid Wall has added enormously to this unique form of colonization,
cutting villagers off from their lands and urban markets, isolating once thriving regional centres such
as Bethlehem and Tulkaram, and further de-developing an already desperate Palestinian economy.
Judged illegal by the International Court of Justice in 2004, the Wall when finished will expropriate
9.5% of the West Bank. A symbol of Israeli dominance and international complicity, the Wall has
called out many kinds of Palestinians resistance: graffiti, art work, weekly protests, tunneling and
finding gaps, keeping farms and businesses going. Such persistence against the odds points to a crucial
element in Palestinian resistance: not being deterred by failure. Not one of the people Rich records
mentions emigration.
Though the Wall looms nine meters tall at the edge of Aida camp, allowing the IOF to look and shoot
at will from its watch towers into the camp, the shabab go down almost daily to challenge the IOF with
stones. A youth from Aida camp, Yasser ‘the Wall’, climbs a Wall watchtower and hangs a Fateh flag
there. Then he manages to make a small hole in the Wall by laying fires along its base. Prison holds no
fears for Yasser: “What have I got to lose? Let them take me to their prison. It can be no worse than this
life anyway!”
The Wall has made life harder for everyone on its route. Abu Ali used to move between his home and his
chicken restaurant inside Al-Ram by showing his ID at the check point. Now they want a written permission
as well as a number. Unable to get permission Abu Ali slips back through razor wire to keep his shop open,
though there are few customers in this newly created No-Man’s-Land. He daren’t go home again for fear
of getting stuck there. While Rich is Al-Ram he sees two old women trying and failing to reach Jerusalem
through the sewage tunnels under the Wall. He sees workers who prize their way into Jerusalem through
cracks and razor wire. A teenage boy gives him a jaunty smile as he climbs the Wall. Rich comments
“While Israel can and does control many aspects of Palestinian life it seems the one thing it cannot always
occupy is people’s minds”.
Many forms of resistance emerge from the stories of the people Rich encounters. The life story of Ibrahim,
whose Pavement Café in Hebron is surrounded by settlers and IOF, reads like political history told in
colloquial Palestinian. The struggle to get educated that students in Nablus express during the Operation
Hot Winter of 2007 has been part of the Palestinian struggle since before 1948. Memory work -- visits
to home villages -- has been going on informally since 1967, and now is mediated through NGOs and
cyberspace. Rich accompanies children from Aida camp to what remains of Ras Abu ‘Ammar and Beit
Jibreen, describing how children bring back earth, stones, prickly pears, and excited stories to their families.
Unable to enter the settlement built over his village, Mohammad says, “The right to return to my village
will come one day however long it takes”. Finding family names scratched on the wall of his grandfather’s
home, Miras adds his own.
Palestinians’ capacity to celebrate happy events -- the release of a prisoner, a wedding – is surely one of their
strengths. Another is an ability to turn suffering into black humour. Yet another is intuiting the Occupation’s
aim and finding and appropriate counter measures. When Aisha says that the Occupation seeks to make
people give up by making life unlivable, she concludes that sustaining family and community ties come
what may is the best form of resistance.
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Though the reader of ‘Behind the Wall’ encounters a wide range of Palestinians, women and men, young
and old, one cannot help remarking Rich’s special affinity for children. This comes out not only in attention
to malnourished infants in a ‘Bethlehem’ hospital, or to children wounded or arrested during IOF raids. It’s
more a capacity to describe them so that they stay in the mind, whether it’s two and a half year old Gangoon
who tells the IOF soldier checking the bus to “Give us your IDs!”; or three year old Jamileh, walking
radiant around Balata camp in her Eid dress with her ‘brother’ Rich; or Yasser ‘the Wall’ who, parentless,
“defended himself, his camp and his rights”; or little Tasbeeh, whose home in Balata is stormed by the IOF
a few hours after her birth, endangering her eardrum; or Miras, shot in the stomach while playing with his
cousins on the balcony, who stays strong in hospital to reassure his father. Later, Miras becomes one of a
group learning photography with Rich; it’s good to know that his photos of the camp are different from the
others because he “chose to look for beauty”. This is a book that all supporters of the Palestinian struggle
will want to give to family and friends.
Rosemary Sayigh is an anthropologist and oral historian living in Beirut, author of Palestinians: From peasants to Revolutionaries (1979) amd Too
Many Enemies: The Palestinian Experience in Lebanon (1994).
'Muftah al-Awda (Key of Return)' Aida Refugee Camp. (© Rich Wiles/
www.richwiles.com)
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The majority of Palestinian voices are still being ignored
by Rich Wiles
Aida Refugee Camp. (© Rich
Wiles/ www.richwiles.com)
A
quick search for ‘Palestine’ on Amazon.com (the world’s biggest book retailer) reveals over
15,000 available entries. There is clearly no shortage of literature on the subject, much as there
is no shortage of discussion or opinion around the world. Many of the books written pre-Nakba
were structured within two main catagories. Some were traditional ‘adventurer’ type travel journals
almost exclusively penned by authors from the ‘privileged minority’ of the colonialist states, whilst others
looked through religious and political perspectives including the reams of early Zionist literature. Post1948, Palestine-related literature was dominated by accounts lauding the establishment of the Zionist
dream. Again, these works were almost exclusively written by ‘Westerners’, which is unsurprising when
acknowledging the fact that the creation of ‘Israel’, and the ethnic cleansing that formed an intrinsic part
of that process, was a European-style colonialist project.
Since the release of previously restricted government archives in the mid-1980's, a huge amount of Israeli
'revisionist' history has been published which has shed light on the ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in
1948. Whilst Israel’s so-called ‘New Historians’ have received much attention for their ‘uncovering’ of
Palestinian expulsions during al-Nakba, and whilst their works do indeed provide valuable insights into
the how the Zionist movement achieved its aim of transferring Palestinians, earlier works by Palestinian
scholars such as Walid Khalidi and others had made almost identical claims without receiving the same
level of recognition.
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Where the work of Khalidi differed from that of many of the New Historians, putting aside the fact that he
began researching and publishing nearly 30 years before the Israeli academics, was in his references. Khalidi
largely referenced Palestinians who had first hand experience of al-Nakba, whilst the New Historians such
as Benny Morris almost exclusively sourced information from de-classified Israeli documents. Khalidi’s
work was dismissed by many as one-sided and biased, whilst the work of the New Historians was considered
radical and groundbreaking. Ilan Pappe’s widely acclaimed book ‘The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine’ (2006,
One World – London) detailed Plan Dalet from de-classified sources amongst its proof that al-Nakba was a
planned process of ethnic cleansing, yet some 45 years earlier Walid Khalidi published his comparatively
unknown paper ‘Plan Dalet: The Zionist Masterplan for the Conquest of Palestine’ (Middle East Forum,
November 1961). In reality, the literature of the New Historians was unique not in its convictions, but
simply in the fact that these ideas were at last being written about by Israelis which gave it much greater
credence in the Western world.
Since the outbreak of the Second Intifada, several ‘internationals’ have published books attempting to convey
the realities of life for Palestinians as they have witnessed it whilst supporting ‘non-violent resistance’
projects, or working for international NGO’s in the remnants of Palestine. So many people have opinions
they want to express, often with good intentions, yet invariably these fall into categories that are intentionally
palatable to a Western audience. These practices drag the international ‘understanding’ of Palestine into
mainstream Western ideals where they can be safely pigeon-holed inside a framework that is acceptable to
both Western publishers and their readerships. There are of course some very valuable exceptions to these
norms, although these books make up a tiny minority with the support of generally alternative presses.
The international ‘solidarity’ movements and segments of the left often fall into exactly the same trap. Their
eagerness to support ‘non-violent Palestinian resistance’ at the expense of the all encompassing Palestinian
concept of ‘mucawameh’ (resistance) is one such example. I have lost count of the number of times I have
listened to ‘peace activists’ promoting non-violence projects as opposed to Palestinian resistance in general,
or trade unionists who claim to ‘support Palestine’ whilst keeping open avenues of communication with
the Zionist Histradut believing that doing so follows their interpretation of a Marxist agenda. In a similar
vein, many ‘solidarity activists’ eagerly campaign for bans of Settlements' produce without fully endorsing
the 2005 Palestinian civil-society call for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS). Similarly, in the vast
halls of academia around the western world, non-Palestinian academics discuss the intellectual polemics
of the one-state versus two-state debate from the safety of their well stocked libraries and comfortable
armchairs without actually Palestinians what shape their own future should take. The notion in certain
circles seems to be that ‘we will support Palestine but only on our terms’.
Through such practices, people are incorporating personal agendas into a struggle that is not their own,
whether intentionally or otherwise, although few of them have ever actually ‘lived’ that struggle. This does
not deny or refute the fact that everyone is entitled to have and express an opinion, but the problems arise
when the opinions of Western ‘experts’ are considered of greater value than those who by definition truly
understand what it means to be Palestinian – the Palestinians themselves. This ‘intellectual imperialism’
can be extremely damaging to Palestine and the global understanding of it.
The voices of the people who have truly lived the struggle, and who have suffered its consequences are all too
often neglected, yet there can be no better opportunity to understand Palestine than by listening to its people.
Through Behind the Wall: Life, Love, and Struggle in Palestine I attempted to create this kind of platform;
a solid base from which uncensored and un-sanitized Palestinian voices could be heard in their own words.
Palestinian stories should be told by Palestinians, they should be listened to, and, if one is intending to
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Review
stand in solidarity with Palestine, they should be acted upon according to a manner promoted by, and in
full support of, those same people. When wanting to profess solidarity with a people who have struggled
with intense dignity and inspirational sumoud (steadfastness) for over six decades, people should not
attempt to pigeon-hole the Palestinian struggle into a box that is acceptable by the states that continue
in their historic role of dictating the global political climate through warfare and their control of natural
resources and commodities.
At the heart of Palestine’s struggle is the refugee case, which remains almost a taboo subject in many
forum including in the seemingly endless and fruitless ‘Peace Process’, which seems on the verge of what
one can only hope is a final collapse. Time and again, in speeches and in op-eds around the world, 'proPalestinian' commentators speak of ‘over 40 years of Occupation’ as if the unjust colonial appropriation of
78% of Palestinian land pre-1967 were somehow morally different from the occupation of the remainder
of Palestine. Similarly, the estimated three quarters of a million Palestinians who were ethnically cleansed
from their homes during al-Nakba and the 7 million or so Palestinians who were born as refugees following
these events are treated as political lepers whose insistence upon their rights, including the Right of Return,
is regarded as quixotic and even malicious.
It is not too late to go back to the beginning and look at all this again, but this time through Palestinian
eyes. Look at how this began, how it developed, how it is sustained, and how it progresses today through
the ongoing Nakba. Without hearing the voices of Palestine’s refugees, and listening to their stories with
a clear eye on the historical and contemporary context, the voices of the vast majority of all Palestinians
alive in the world today will continue to be ignored.
'Back in Tents Again' - Nablus.
(© Rich Wiles/ www.richwiles.com)
Rich Wiles is a photographic artist, independent writer, and activist based in Palestine. His photographic exhibitions from Palestine have been exhibited
widely around the world. Since 2005, Rich Wiles has been the Coordinator of International Relations at Lajee Center in Aida Refugee Camp.'
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Documents
Final Statement: Global Palestine Right of Return Coalition-10th Annual
Meeting-Beirut 5-11 December 2010
Under the motto "our right to return to our homeland is inalienable and not to be nullified by a statute of limitations,
" the Global Palestine Right of Return Coalition” conducted its tenth meeting in Beirut between the fifth and the
eleventh of December 2010 in the Shatila and Mar Elias camps. The meeting was hosted by the Centre for
Refugee Rights / Aidoun and the Coordination Forum of NGOs Working in the Palestinian Refugee Communities
in Lebanon, with the participation of a number of guests, observers and experts interested in the issue of refugees
and their right to return.
The official meeting commenced at the UNESCO Palace on Monday, 6/12/2010 under the auspices of Lebanese
Minister of Information Dr. Tarek Mitri and the presence of representatives of the /Embassy of Palestine as well
as the various Palestinian factions and a number of Lebanese parties. Dr. Tarek Mitri gave a speech in which he
stressed the support of the Lebanese people and government of the right of refugees to return to their homes and
their right to a dignified and decent life until they return.
In a speech on behalf of the coalition, Jaber Suleiman, stressed that it will uphold the refugees right of return. He
also reviewed the coalition’s activities and efforts during the past year, as well as the challenges facing the refugee
issue. Furthermore, he said that granting Palestinian refugees in Lebanon basic human rights does not conflict
with or negate their right to return. Dr. Salman Abu Sitta also gave a historic overview of the Zionist settlement,
occupation and usurpation of Palestinian territories.
The coalition mourned the loss of the late Abdullah Hourani, general coordinator of the Palestine Popular Assembly
for Defending the Right of Return in the camps of the Gaza Strip, who passed away in Amman /Jordan as he was
ready to attend the tenth meeting. The participants extended a salute and tribute to his pure soul, and valued his
historic role in defending the national cause and the rights of Palestinian refugees, at the forefront of which is the
right of return.
The coalition also sent a message of solidarity in support of the detained activist Ameer Makhoul, who is
imprisoned by the occupation. The coalition values his role in strengthening the resilience of those who reside in
land occupied in 1948, in the face of the racist Zionist regime’s plans, procedures and practices to enact a racial
policy of Judiazation and ethnic cleansing.
As part of the annual meeting of the coalition, participants met with some of the representatives of the Lebanese
parliamentary blocks, and the Chairperson of the Lebanese / Palestinian Dialogue Committee created under the
Lebanese Prime Minister office. During the meeting the coalition discussed the need to ensure the civil, social,
economic and cultural rights of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, in order to enhance their steadfastness and to
work for their return to the homes from which they were expelled. The coalition assured Lebanon that it respects
its sovereignty, stability and security, and the need to alleviate the suffering of the Palestinians in the camps,
stressing their firm rejection of any attempts to settle them permanently in Lebanon.
And in honor of the souls of Palestinian martyrs, members of the coalition visited the martyrs’ cemetery in Shatila
and laid a wreath of flowers at the mass grave of the martyrs of Sabra & Shatila massacre.
The coalition held its internal meetings over a two day period (6 - 7/12/2010). The reports of the coordinators of
the committees in different regions were discussed in depth, during the meetings. In addition, the participants
examined the obstacles facing the coalition’s work, and discussed the internal Rules of Procedure in an effort to
develop it in a way which is commensurate with the directions to be taken in the next stage.
Additionally, the meeting discussed the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Campaign / BDS, against Israel. In
doing so, mechanisms which should be utilized to promote and expand the boycott in Palestine, the Arab world and
the world in general as tool to serve the Palestinian people's struggle for their legitimate rights, were discussed.
As for the round-table discussions, they addressed the critical Palestinian situation, in light of the continued division
in the field of the Palestinian national struggle. They also discussed the aggressive Zionist policies against the
Palestinian people and their land, as well as the dim prospects of the negotiations, which have been stalled for years
due to Israeli intransigence and U.S. support for the position of the Zionist stance. Moreover, these negotiations
failed because they were not grounded in resolutions set by international law. The meeting stressed the need to
address the policy of forced displacement, confiscation of land and illegal settlement expansion, as well as the
continued construction of the separation wall, the Judaization of Jerusalem’s neighborhoods and holy sites, the
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continuing siege of the Gaza Strip, and the pressure and blackmail to recognize the Jewishness of the state. Such
policies seek to obliterate Palestinian national rights and perpetuate the occupation and the apartheid regime.
In the light of the deliberations and discussions which were characterized by a spirit of high responsibility,
participants concluded that:
First: on the political level:
1.
The right of the Palestinian people to return to their homes from which they were expelled in 1948 and to
restitute their own property. The material and moral compensation for their losses is a historic and legal right
based on the principles of international humanitarian law and the international law of human rights, and is
also grounded in international resolutions, particularly UNGA Resolution 194.
2.
Upholding the unity of the refugee issue within the context of the unity of the land and the people in Mandatory
Palestine and in exile, and the categorical rejection of all attempts to partition this issue or resolve the refugee
issue in any country under any pretext or circumstance.
3.
The need to consolidate the discourse on the right of return and elevate it to an extent which harnesses and
unifies the energies of the Palestinian people and all its committees. The expansion of this discourse to include
the cultural and educational dimensions of the Palestinian refugee community’s lives.
4.
The Rejection of any settlement to the Palestinian/Arab – Zionist conflict which is not anchored on the basis
of national inalienable rights, international law and the resolutions of the international community, and to
emphasize that the terms of reference of the current purposed settlements such the Roadmap Plan and the
Arab Peace Initiative do not meet the minimum rights of our people but only perpetuate the arrogance of
the Zionists in their attempt to blur national rights, especially the right of refugees to return to their original
homes.
5.
Call upon all Palestinian parties of different persuasions to work hard to ensure immediate reconciliation
between the warring Palestinian factions in order to restore national unity, and to end the state of division,
which will strengthen the steadfastness of the Palestinian people in their struggle to confront the aggressive
policies of Zionism, and to acquire legitimate national rights.
6.
The return of the Palestinian people to their original homes is a right not to be nullified by a statute of limitations,
and is not up for a referendum vote, as it is an inalienable individual and collective right which cannot be
bartered with any other right. Ending the conflict is not possible without resolving the issue of refugees through
a just and durable solution based on the implementation of UNGA Resolution 194.
Second: at the domestic level and the Plan of Action Coalition:
58
•
Maintain the popular character of Al-Awda movement as a mass movement which represents the interests
of refugees and express their rights, in particular the right to return to their original homes. This should be
done without getting involved in the battle for political representation, and out of concern for strengthening
the representation of the Palestinian people in the PLO, since it can be considered the national unifying entity
of the Palestinian people. It is also imperative to reform the PLOs institutions based on democratic principles
which ensure the involvement of all national Palestinian factions, while emphasizing that Al-Awda movement
is an integral part of the Palestinian liberation movement and one of its key pillars.
•
Cementing the organizational structures of Al-Awda groups in every arena and expanding popular participation
in its activities, particularly by young people, and launching a dialogue and exchange of ideas and information
among themselves in order to develop and elaborate an encompassing form of organization for Al-Awda’s
work to better meet the challenges faced by the issue of return.
•
Develop more systematic efforts to raise the problems faced by Palestinian refugees in the some of the Arab
host countries, especially Lebanon, in order to grant them temporary protection and effectively secure their
basic human rights, to strengthen their steadfastness until they return to their homes, which requires a practical
stance against resettlement and displacement, and the provision of a decent life for Refugees.
•
Further the efforts to inform the international community of protection gaps facing Palestinian refugees and
the possibilities inherent in addressing them. This requires that the relevant international bodies, especially
UNRWA and the High Commissioner for Refugees / UNHCR assume their responsibilities and raise the level
Documents
of awareness and care to the concerns of the refugees. It is also necessary to reactivate the role of the UN
Conciliation Commission for Palestine (UNCCP).
•
strengthening the role of the coalition in the international campaign to boycott, divest and sanction Israel within
the framework effectively contributing to building a solid network of international solidarity in order to further
the isolation of the Zionist state, and activate the mechanisms which ensure the fulfillment of the Palestinian
people’s international rights, particularly the right of return of Palestinian refugees to their original homes.
•
Emphasize the need of the institutions of the PLO to uphold its responsibility towards the Palestinian refugees
in all places they are present, which calls for activating the Department of Refugee Affairs in the Palestinian
Liberation Organization and elevating its work, in a manner commensurate with the challenges faced by the
refugee issue.
•
Calling upon the Palestinian Liberation Organization to take an active role in the follow-up to launching Judge
Goldstone’s report, in United Nations bodies, and enhance coordination between them and Palestinian NGOs
and relevant international groups, to ensure that the Zionist war criminals are brought to trial for crimes they
have committed against the Palestinian people.
•
Promote the participation of women in various aspects of national Palestinian activities and encourage them to
play a more active role especially in feminist organizations working in the refugee community, which enables
improving the coalition’s endeavors to defend the rights of refugees.
In conclusion, the coalition salutes the masses of the Palestinian people in all places to which they were displaced,
whose presence confirms that the issue of return is the unified national character of the struggle of the Palestinian
people, of all different affiliations. This requires all of us to shoulder our national responsibilities, each from his
position, towards unity, which is our strongest and most lasting weapon to meet the challenges and restore our
national rights, foremost the right of return
And we shall return,
Beirut 11/12/2010
Participants in the tenth meeting
Members:
•
Centre for Refugee Rights / Aidoun- Lebanon
•
Coordination Forum of NGOs working in the Palestinian Refugee Communities / Lebanon (Beit Atfal Al-Somoud ,
Norwegian People's Aid( NPA), Popular Aid for Relief and Development (PARD) ,Najdeh Association)
•
Badil - Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights - Palestine
•
Union of Youth Activity Centers (UYAC) - Palestine
•
Union of Women's Activity Centers (UWAC) - Palestine
•
Committee for the Defense of Palestinian Refugee Rights and Yafa Cultural Center - Palestine
•
Executive Office of the Popular Committees of Refugees - West Bank / Palestine
The Gathering of Inhabitants of the Destroyed Towns and Villages – Ramallah / Palestine
•
Palestine Right of Return Confederation - Europe
•
Al-Awda Coalition- United States of America
•
Aidoun Group – Syria
Guests:
•
Jordanian Women's Union - Jordan
•
Right of Return conference - London
•
Department of Refugee Affairs / PLO - Palestine
•
Palestine Remembered: Jordan / America
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JOINT OPEN LETTER:
Re: EU-Israel Sub-Committee on Political Dialogue and Cooperation,
15 December 2010
To: Mr. Thomas Dupla Del Moral, Middle East Director, External Relations Directorate General, European
Commission
Dear Mr. Dupla Del Moral,
Re: EU-Israel Sub-Committee on Political Dialogue and Cooperation, 15 December 2010
As Palestinian human rights organisations committed to the protection and promotion of human rights in the
Occupied Palestinian Territory (OPT), in light of the upcoming EU-Israel Subcommittee Meeting on Political Dialogue
and Cooperation, scheduled for 15 December 2010, we would like to express our strong concerns regarding
Israel’s continuing settlement construction.
For over four decades Israel has engaged in a policy of consolidating its territorial, administrative and legal control
over the OPT, constituent of the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip, by establishing and
expanding its illegal settlements. Settlements and their associated infrastructure of Israeli-only by-pass roads,
checkpoints, roadblocks and the Annexation Wall, control 42% of the West Bank. Built on lands illegally confiscated
from Palestinians, the settlement infrastructure fragments the occupied territory into separate enclaves, preventing
the Palestinian people from making use of their land and natural resources, and exercising their right to selfdetermination.
In addition to having a devastating impact on Palestinian freedom of movement, family life and access to education,
food, health care and other services, Israel’s settlement enterprise has further resulted in the creation of two
parallel and unequal societies in the OPT – a superior Israeli settler society and a dominated and disadvantaged
Palestinian society that is denied its fundamental human rights.
In November 2009, in response to international criticism, Israel declared a ten-month moratorium on settlement
construction in the West Bank. With the expiration of the moratorium on 26 September 2010, construction in the
West Bank has resumed at an even greater rate. In its Council Conclusions of December 2009, the EU supported
the moratorium as a “first step in the right direction” and in October 2010, following her visit to Israel and the
OPT, the EU High Representative Ashton called on “Israel to continue the moratorium.” Earlier this week the High
Representative noted “with regret that Israel has not been in a position to accept an extension of the moratorium,
as requested by the US, the EU and the Quartet.”
While we appreciate the EU’s attempts to challenge Israel’s settlement activity, it is crucial to acknowledge that the
moratorium amounts to nothing more than a hollow political gesture. The terms of the “freeze” were so narrow as to
effectively allow much construction to continue. For example, construction in and around occupied East Jerusalem,
of public buildings or for security needs as well as ongoing construction were exempted from the moratorium.
Furthermore, the moratorium allowed the Civil Administration to single-handedly permit construction in a wide set of
circumstances, including for “public safety” and in other undefined exceptional cases. These factors, in conjunction
with a lack of enforcement by the Israeli authorities of even the most limited terms of the moratorium, means that
settlement construction has continued with almost no change of pace during the alleged “freeze.”
Israel’s settlement policy in the OPT is in blatant violation of international law. Settlement activity violates the international humanitarian law prohibitions of population transfer and of unlawful and wanton destruction of property
not justified by military necessity, which constitute war crimes amounting to grave breaches of the Fourth Geneva
Convention. Israel’s discriminatory policies further violate the International Convention on the Suppression and
Punishment of the Crime of Apartheid and the Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries
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and Peoples as well as various human rights instruments (for an in depth legal and technical analysis kindly find
enclosed Al-Haq’s Position Paper “Unmasking the ‘Freeze’: Israel’s alleged Moratorium on Settlement Construction
Whitewashes Egregious Violations of International Law”).
In conclusion, and as affirmed in the EU Council Conclusions of December 2009, settlements “are illegal under
international law, constitute an obstacle to peace and threaten to make a two-state solution impossible.” Israel’s
settlement policy cannot be redressed with political measures such as the recent moratorium. The terms of the
moratorium do not represent a halt to the violations caused by the construction and presence of settlements in
the OPT, thus disregarding Israel’s continuous breaches of international law and contradicting the EU’s demands
for an immediate end to “all settlement activities in East Jerusalem and the rest of the West Bank.”
In light of the above and in view of the upcoming EU-Israel Subcommittee Meeting on Political Dialogue and
Cooperation, the Palestinian human rights community urges the EU to reaffirm its demand on Israel to “reverse
its settlement policy and to freeze all settlement activity” as expressed in the 2004 Council Conclusions. The
EU must further ensure a prompt “abolition of financial and tax incentives and direct and indirect subsidies, and
the withdrawal of exemptions benefiting the settlements and their inhabitants,” as affirmed in the 2005 Council
Conclusions. Moreover, the EU must send Israel a clear message affirming that the upgrade of EU-Israel relations
will remain frozen until Israel adheres to its obligations under international law and EU demands relating to Israel's
settlement policy are met.
Finally, the EU must reject deceptive notions of a temporary settlement “freeze” and instead insist on adherence
to the fundamental principles of international law. International law unequivocally states that the only remedy to
Israel’s settlement policy in the OPT, and the only basis for a just and lasting peace in the context of the IsraelPalestine conflict, is an immediate, unambiguous and permanent end to all settlement activity.
Sincerely,
The Palestinian Council of Human Rights Organisations
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BADIL report submitted for upcoming review of Israel's performance under
the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights
BADIL's report to the UN Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights (CESCR) provides evidence of
Israel's ongoing and systematic violation of the rights to self-determination and non-discrimination of all Palestinians
under its jurisdiction or effective control, thereby preventing the enjoyment of all other economic, social and cultural
rights, including the rights to work, education, protection of the family, an adequate standard of living and health.
BADIL's report draws attention to the fact that the scope of Israel's Covenant violations has increased since CESCR
reviewed Israel's performance in 1998, 2001 and 2003. It urges the Committee to examine Israeli legislation,
policies and practices which have given rise to a system of institutionalized racial discrimination, forced population
transfer and territorial expansion that affects the Covenant-enshrined rights of Palestinian citizens, refugees
and those under occupation since 1967. BADIL also urges CESCR to undertake its review in the light of recent
reports, including by two UN Special Rapporteurs on the Situation of Human Rights in the Palestinian Territories
Occupied since 1967, which conclude that Israel's oppressive regime over the Palestinian people amounts to
colonialism and apartheid.
BADIL, alongside other Palestinian rights organizations, submitted the report as part of a coordinated effort to aid
the Committee in its formation of the list of issues for the State Party’s consideration. The report notes with concern
that a 2001 letter from the Committee alerting of the fact that Israel's human rights violations had reached a “crisis
situation” and recommending that the UN Economic and Social Council take action under articles 21 and 22 of
the Covenant has gone unheeded. BADIL strongly urges the Committee to examine thoroughly Israel’s system of
institutionalized racial discrimination and denial of self-determination and issue the strongest possible Concluding
Observations focused on developing practical recommendations.
The Full report can be downloaded from the OHCHR website:
http://www2.ohchr.org/english/bodies/cescr/docs/ngos/BADIL_Israel45.doc
and from the BADIL website here:
[http://www.badil.org/en/documents/category/40-other?download=846%3Abadil-sub-to-cecsr-regarding-israel-icescr4thsession-nov2010]
62
Documents
BDS Campaign Update
(June – December 2010)
Nakba Day in Canada, May
2010 (Ehab Lotayef)
Glasgow shops join boycott of all Israeli produce
30 August 2010 – Following a campaign by Friends of Al Aqsa and the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign,
Asian shops in a key area of Glasgow declare themselves free of Israeli produce. A number of shopkeepers
were unaware that they were even stocking Israeli goods and thanked campaigners for helping them to correctly
identify Israeli goods.
Israeli actors call for a boycott of cultural center in the Israeli colony of Ariel
31 August 2010 – A group of 200 Israeli artists have vowed not to play in the new cultural center in the illegal Israeli
colony of Ariel or any of the Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank. The boycotting artists were supported
by over 150 Israeli academics and a protest of over 300 activists outside a Tel Aviv theater company that had
agreed to perform in Ariel. Palestinian groups welcome the boycott but insist on a morally consistent boycott on
all Israeli state-funded cultural institutions in line with the 2005 Palestinian BDS call.
Pro-Israeli media sources and think tanks report an acceleration of the BDS movement
5 September 2010 – Israeli newspaper Haaretz reports on the growing economic and political effects of the
global BDS movement. Reports by Israeli think tank, the REUT institute and pro-Israeli lobbies such as AIPAC
and J-Street call for the formation of an anti-boycott strategy to counter the growing effectiveness of the BDS
campaign.
Winter 2010
63
BDS Update
Palestine conference in India endorses the Palestinian BDS Campaign
22nd-23rd September 2010 – With the support of the Palestinian National Committee for Boycott, Divestment and
Sanctions, Indian intellectuals and activists organized the “Just Peace for Palestine” conference in New Delhi,
India. The conference concluded with a resolution which called upon “the Indian government to end its military
ties with Israel and return to its earlier commitment to the cause of the Palestinian people.” The conference
also affirmed that “the world must declare that Israel is an apartheid state. It must call for global boycott and
sanctions on Israel as long as it continues its illegal occupation of Palestine and its apartheid policies.” The
resolution appealed to “people in India to join the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign as a
show of solidarity with the Palestinian people and their just struggle.” A plan of action was announced, in which
several steps to show solidarity with Palestinians were outlined, particularly the launching of BDS campaigns
and other measures by people’s action groups in the Asian region. More information on the conference can be
found on the PACBI website: http://www.pacbi.org/etemplate.php?id=1376
University of Johannesburg cancels long-term academic links with Ben-Gurion University
30 September 2010 - The Senate of the University of Johannesburg votes "not to continue a long-standing
relationship with Ben Gurion University (BGU) in Israel in its present form" and to set conditions "for the relationship
to continue." The UJ Senate set an ultimatum of six months for BGU to end its complicity with the Israeli occupation
army and to end policies of racial discrimination against Palestinians. The decision came after a campaign endorsed
by over 250 South African academics including the heads of the four South African universities and prominent
leaders such as Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Breyten Breytenbach, John Dugard, Antjie Krog, Barney Pityana,
and Kader Asmal.
Irish government scraps 'Israeli bullets’ deal
11 October 2010 – The Irish government refused to grant Israel Military Industries the contract to supply 10 million
bullets to the Irish Defence Forces. The contract for the 5.56 x 45mm rounds, to be bought over a five-year period,
has instead gone to Belgian and Brazilian arms manufacturers. The announcement came after a seven month
campaign by the Irish PSC against the granting of the contract to any Israeli company. The campaign involved
a lobby of the government, a letter writing campaign and protested outside the Defence Minister Tony Killeen’s
constituency office.
Norwegian campaign for Academic and Cultural Boycott launched with over 100 Signatures
13 October 2010 - A Norwegian petition calling for an institutional cultural and academic boycott of Israel (in line
with the PACBI guidelines) has gathered 100 impressive signatories -- academics, writers, musicians, other cultural
workers, and sports celebrities, including Egil "Drillo" Olsen, the coach of the Norwegian national soccer team,
who is a huge celebrity in Norway.
Five countries boycott tourism conference in Jerusalem
15 October 2010 - An OECD ‘High Level Roundtable’ on tourism due to take place in West Jerusalem was thrown
into chaos by the decision of five countries not to attend and the disclosure by several others that only low-level
delegations will take part. Following attempts by Israel to use the conference to further its territorial claims on
Jerusalem and concerns raised by Palestinian civil society and its international supporters that the conference
serves to whitewash Israeli violations of international law, the UK, Sweden, Ireland, Turkey and South Africa
announced that they would be not be taking part. Although the UK denied that its refusal to attend was politically
64
BDS Update
motivated, Sweden and Turkey openly stated that their withdrawals are political in nature. In a further blow to the
credibility of the ‘high level’ conference at which ‘senior government officials’ were expected to discuss tourism
policy, a number of countries will not send tourism ministers and instead low-ranking officials will represent member
country governments.
Veolia and Alstrom attempt to sell shares in Jerusalem Light Railway - BNC Calls for an
intensification of Campaign
15 October 2010 - Veolia and Alstom, the two French companies involved in the construction and management
of a tramway linking west Jerusalem with illegal Israeli colonial settlements in Occupied Palestinian Territory, are
both reported to be selling their shares in the consortium that manages the project after a long and determined
BDS campaign against the companies. The campaign contributed to the exclusion of both companies from
major pension funds in the Netherlands, Sweden and Denmark as well as the loss of nearly a staggering €5bn
internationally, including the loss by Veolia of a €3.5bn contract to operate subways in Stockholm County, a
contract it had held for ten years. While the sale of the shares does constitute a success for the BDS campaign,
the continuation of the companies' complicity and profiteering from the project, and in other illegal projects in
Palestine and their refusal to pay compensation to the Palestinian victims means that they should continue to be
the targets of concerted BDS action.
Coalition of Women for Peace release report on Complicity of Israeli Bank in the Occupation
19 October 2010 - Who Profits from the Occupation, the research project of The Coalition of Women for Peace,
initiated in response to the Palestinian call for Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) against Israel, released
a report on the direct involvement of Israeli banks in illegal settlements. The report entitled 'Financing the Occupation: the Direct Involvement of Israelis Banks in Illegal Settlement Activity and Control Over the Palestinian
Banking Market' identifies six categories of the involvement of Israeli banks and is a useful resource for activists
campaigning against financial institutions responsible for maintaining the financial framework of the occupation. A
full copy of the report is available on the Who Profits website at: http://www.whoprofits.org/articlefiles/WhoProfitsIsraeliBanks2010.pdf
City Council of Cigales removes Eden Springs water from its buildings
21st October 2010 – The Spanish town of Cigales became the second town in the province of Valladolid to join
to the international BDS movement by removing the Israeli bottled water Eden Springs Ltd. from all its municipal
buildings. The move came after a strong mobilization of the towns inhabitants, including demonstrations, petitions
and public awareness campaigns and comes in the wake of a similar decision by the City Council of Villanueva
de Duero and the teachers and workers of the Nursing School of the University of Valladolid who requested the
removal of Eden Springs from the bottled water vending machines. Eden Springs is an Israeli-owned company
and is sourced from the illegally occupied Golan Heights.
War on Want release new report on BDS
November 2010 – British anti-poverty charity War on Want published a new report exposing companies profiting
from the occupation. The report highlights the need for the global community to take action to support the Palestinian people in the struggle for their right and explains the logic and success of the growing BDS movement. A full
copy of the report is available on the War on Want website: http://www.waronwant.org/attachments/Boycott,%20
Divestment,%20Sanctions.pdf
Winter 2010
65
BDS Update
South African Artists Against Apartheid Launched
1 November 2010 – After Cape Town Opera (CTO) announce their intention to perform “Porgy and Bess” in Tel Aviv,
hundreds of South Africans including Desmond Tutu and the South African Civil Society Conference (comprising
over 300 delegates from 56 mass-based civil society organisations) join a letter by Israeli BDS activists calling
on the CTO to cancel its tour. Whilst the tour did go ahead, Israeli BDS activists performed a mock performance
outside the theater in protest (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wElyrFOnKPk&feature=related) and as a result
of the mass mobilization against CTO performing, activists announce the launch of South African Artists Against
Apartheid to implement a sustained campaign of cultural boycott against Israel (http://www.southafricanartistsag
ainstapartheid.com/2010/11/declaration.html)
Africa Israel says no plans to build more settlements
3 November 2010 - Africa Israel, the flagship company of Israeli billionaire Lev Leviev, announced that it is no
longer involved in Israeli settlement projects and that it has no plans for future settlement activities. Africa Israel
subsequently denied that this was a political decision. However, in the last few years numerous organizations,
firms, governments and celebrities have exerted pressure and severed their relationships with Leviev and his
companies over their involvement in settlement construction and other human rights abuses, in response to a
boycott campaign initiated by Adalah-NY.
BDS moves forward in Australia after landmark Conference
4 November 2010 – Over 150 Palestine solidarity activists gathered in Melbourne, Australia for a two-day conference
in support of the Palestinian BDS call. In addition to the conference, the Electrical Trades Union, the Australian
Manufacturing Workers Union, the Construction Forestry Mining and Energy Union, the Queensland branch of the
Rail Tram and Bus Union and the Finance Sector Union have all passed resolutions supporting the international
boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign against Israel.
Major Dutch pension fund divests from Israeli occupation
12 November 2010 - The major Dutch pension fund Pensioenfonds Zorg en Welzijn (PFZW), which has investments
totaling €97bn has divested from almost all the Israeli companies in its portfolio. PGGM, the manager of the major
Dutch pension fund PFZW, has adopted a new guideline for socially responsible investment in companies which
operate in conflict zones. In addition, PFZM has also entered into discussions with Motorola, Veolia and Alstom
to raise its concerns about human rights issues.
De Paul University suspends sales of Israeli Humous
19 November 2010 – De Paul University in Chicago has agreed to suspend the sale of Israeli hummus brand
Sabra. Upon discovering that Chartwells, the provider of dining services at the university had introduced of the
brand to the campus, student activists compiled information on the company's vocal and material support for
the Israeli Army and had the product removed in less than two weeks. The campaign to ban Sabra has already
spread to a number of the other 156 college and university campuses in the United States for whom Chartwells
provides catering services.
Montreal hosts successful BDS Conference against Israeli Apartheid
22nd-24th November 2010 – A conference organized by BDS activists in Canada brought together over 600 hundred
people concerned with social justice and the rights of Palestinians. The conference included 2 days of workshops,
66
BDS Update
a hiphop concert and speaker plenaries and concluded with resolutions to strengthen Canadian BDS networks
by agreeing to organize for the BDS international day of action on 30th March, expand Israeli Apartheid Week and
commit to spread the cultural boycott of Israel.
Tindersticks Cancel Tel Aviv Show
23 November 2010 – English indie rock band the Tindersticks cancel their show in Tel Aviv following a concerted
campaign by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI). In a press
release Tindersticks cited their reason as being their wish not to “defy a rapidly growing movement with whose
aims we agree”.
Palestinian civil society reaffirms support for persecuted French activists
23 November 2010 – In response to attempts by the French government to prosecute activists involved in the global
BDS campaign, the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions National Committee (BNC) urged the French
government to immediately cease all undemocratic, repressive measures against its own conscientious citizens
who promote or engage in non-violent boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaigns against Israel until it
complies with international law. The BNC also called upon the State of France to respect its own legal obligations
under international law, cease its role as the EU's largest supplier of military equipment to Israel, and undertake
further measures, including sanctions, in order to bring to an end Israel's unlawful regime of occupation, colonialism
and apartheid over the Palestinian people.
BDS Dabka flashmob in 5 cities video
29 November 2010 – In recognition of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, activists in
the 5 cities of Geneva, Toronto, Utrecht, Paris and Geel organized Dabka flashmobs to raise awareness of the
campaign for BDS against Israel until it complies with international law. The full video is available online at http://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oyprxqz3P1E
Argentinian workers' movements and community radios take up BDS
November 2010 - November saw a flurry of BDS activities in Argentina, where workers from the recovered factories
movement, along with the global umbrella organization for community radio, committed to active support of the
Palestinian BDS call. Workers in 205 factories reclaimed since the 2001 financial crisis pledged to "ensure that
our work sites, our businesses and factories, [...] will be spaces free of Israeli apartheid. We resolve to ensure
we do not have contracts and business between our recovered companies and Israeli companies, the State of
Israel or companies that support the State of Israel." In addition to committing to raise awareness in Argentina
about the Palestinian struggle, workers will be encouraged to "participate in and support global and national BDS
initiatives [and] require the State of
Argentina to cut relations with the State of Israel until such time as the end of apartheid and freedom of the
Palestinian people is achieved." In the city of La Plata, Argentina, the World Association of Community Radio
Broadcasters (AMARC) bringing together 4,000 community radios across 115 countries also broke new ground
when they issued a statement supporting the BDS movement at the tenth Global Conference of Community
Radio broadcasters.
IWW supports Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement in support of Palestinian rights
2 December 2010 – The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or Wobblies) has officially voted to support
Winter 2010
67
BDS Update
the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement in support of Palestinian rights. The “Resolution
in Support of the Workers of Palestine/Israel” was adopted in an overwhelming vote both at the IWW’s
convention in Minneapolis and by the membership via referendum. This vote makes the IWW the first
union in the US and the third union in Canada to officially support the Palestinian United Call for Boycott,
Divestment and Sanctions.
Human Rights Watch calls for US and EU Sanctions against Israel over Illegal Settlements
19 December 2010 – In a 166-page report into Israeli practices in the Occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem,
Human Rights Watch concluded that Palestinians face severe systematic discrimination due to their racial, ethnic
and national origins. The report also focused on the role of settlements and called for a suspension by the EU and
US of any support which would facilitate the maintenance and continued growth of the settlements, in order that
they not be implicated in Israel's grave breaches of international law. The report can be found in full on the HRW
website: http://www.hrw.org/node/95061
Raising awareness of
BDS in Utrecht, Holland.
68
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Survey of Palestinian Refugees and Internally Displaced
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Editor: Terry Rempel
BADIL: December 2009
This collection demonstrates the importance of a law-based approach to
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